It's finally that day. I'm down to less than 24 hours in Bilbao and Europe too. I'm packed for the most part and I think I should be able to make it home with all of my things. Keep your fingers crossed, though because it's going to be close.
I leave at 6:45 in the morning from the Bilbao airport and thank God my host family is driving me. Most kids have to take the bus or a taxi. I know I wouldn't be able to handle the bus with 3 suitcases! From Bilbao I fly to Brussels and from Brussels to Chicago. I believe we land in Chicago around 1 in the afternoon and then we have a 7 hour layover before I get to come back to Nebraska. If I did the math right (which I'm sure I didn't) it will be around 25 hours of traveling before the drive back to Broken Bow.
For my last blog entry, I thought I would share some of the lessons I've learned over the past 4 and a half months.
1. Some people just weren't created to backpack through Europe. I am one of these people and I am perfectly happy checking my suitcase so I can travel more comfortably.
2. There may be a word for "excuse me" in Spanish, but it isn't a part of daily vocabulary-- Which is fine because I love knocking old people over.
3. There are other people in the world besides my mother that appreciate my sense of humor. This week I was voted "Funniest Girl" in our CIDE Superlatives.
4. Driving lanes and speed limits are just suggestions. It's a miracle I've survived European roads, but I still have one more car trip.
5. Also just a suggestion-- Customer Service. If I was that rude my own mother would fire me!
6. But if you ask people for help in the streets, especially in Spain, everyone is more than happy to help you and they appreciate that you are learning their language.
7. If you want to learn funny or naughty words, the best place to look is to the 10-year-olds who think you must be famous since you are American.
8. People from other countries hate it when we call ourselves Americans. Did you know we aren't the only country on the American continent?
9. There is absolutely no reason why you need to buy a completely new European wardrobe. But if you do and have the ability to get it all home, more power to you.
10. Do Not-- I repeat, DO NOT under any circumstances help friends with money emergencies unless they have done a full psych evaluation beforehand.
Thank you so much for reading along with me on my journey. It meant so much knowing I had a full support system back at home (and knowing that people actually took the time to read these).
Next stop- America!
Thursday, May 16, 2013
Sunday, May 12, 2013
San Sebastian and More
So I realized it's been over a week since I've blogged so I guess I should fill everyone in. I'm not going to lie, I'm pretty excited that this is probably my second to last blog. I hate it!!
Last Friday I visited San Sebastian with my friends Mackenzie and Elizabeth. San Sebastian is about an hour and a half bus ride from Bilbao and is in the neighboring providence of Gipuzkoa which is also in Basque Country. This city is beautiful. It's right on the coast and has a huge beach. The beach itself isn't particularly pretty but it looks out onto island cities.
When we got there, we decided to take the long way to the beach by following the river. San Sebastian has another Deusto Campus (where I go to school) that's way prettier! The walk was beautiful and the town is full of old, intricately detailed bridges. When we got to the beach, we started our day by going pintxo hopping. Pintxos are like mini appetizers and it's traditional for the Basque people to go from pintxo bar to pintxo bar to try a little bit of everything. San Sebastian is known to have the best pintxos in the world and the definitely lived up to their reputation. My favorite that I had was bread covered in a spicy tuna and cheese. It was the first time in Spain that I had something that I could actually consider spicy!
We spent most of the rest of the day sitting on the beach. It was too cold and rainy to swim but we sat on the beach, drew in the sand, and walked until there wasn't any beach left. For as little as we did, it was probably the most fun part about the day. The rest of the day consisted of walking through the town looking around before our bus left for the day. Of course, in true Emily/Mackenzie traveling style, we had to run to the bus stop because we went to the wrong place and were about to miss our bus. But don't worry, we made it home.
That Sunday, I went on another hike with my family in the mountains my Pelentzia beach. It wasn't as hard of a hike as the last one, but it was hot! As always, I ended up making friends with kids half my age. They heard the word American and knew that I had to know someone famous. The entire downhill hike was spent saying things in English so they could put their lessons to the test. When we got to the bottom of the mountain, the kids' mom asked Isabel if she could take me home with her and where to get one of me. I'm pretty sure I just recruited a new host family for the program.
The rest of the week was really slow. I spent most of it putting off writing one of my last essays. It rained the whole week too which made it go extremely slow. Last night I got to "attend" Jack's graduation ceremony via Skype. I couldn't really see or hear anything so that was great. I'm so glad I got to see and talk to everyone at the reception. I can't wait to come home and see everyone. 5 days left in Bilbao!!
Last Friday I visited San Sebastian with my friends Mackenzie and Elizabeth. San Sebastian is about an hour and a half bus ride from Bilbao and is in the neighboring providence of Gipuzkoa which is also in Basque Country. This city is beautiful. It's right on the coast and has a huge beach. The beach itself isn't particularly pretty but it looks out onto island cities.
When we got there, we decided to take the long way to the beach by following the river. San Sebastian has another Deusto Campus (where I go to school) that's way prettier! The walk was beautiful and the town is full of old, intricately detailed bridges. When we got to the beach, we started our day by going pintxo hopping. Pintxos are like mini appetizers and it's traditional for the Basque people to go from pintxo bar to pintxo bar to try a little bit of everything. San Sebastian is known to have the best pintxos in the world and the definitely lived up to their reputation. My favorite that I had was bread covered in a spicy tuna and cheese. It was the first time in Spain that I had something that I could actually consider spicy!
We spent most of the rest of the day sitting on the beach. It was too cold and rainy to swim but we sat on the beach, drew in the sand, and walked until there wasn't any beach left. For as little as we did, it was probably the most fun part about the day. The rest of the day consisted of walking through the town looking around before our bus left for the day. Of course, in true Emily/Mackenzie traveling style, we had to run to the bus stop because we went to the wrong place and were about to miss our bus. But don't worry, we made it home.
That Sunday, I went on another hike with my family in the mountains my Pelentzia beach. It wasn't as hard of a hike as the last one, but it was hot! As always, I ended up making friends with kids half my age. They heard the word American and knew that I had to know someone famous. The entire downhill hike was spent saying things in English so they could put their lessons to the test. When we got to the bottom of the mountain, the kids' mom asked Isabel if she could take me home with her and where to get one of me. I'm pretty sure I just recruited a new host family for the program.
The rest of the week was really slow. I spent most of it putting off writing one of my last essays. It rained the whole week too which made it go extremely slow. Last night I got to "attend" Jack's graduation ceremony via Skype. I couldn't really see or hear anything so that was great. I'm so glad I got to see and talk to everyone at the reception. I can't wait to come home and see everyone. 5 days left in Bilbao!!
Thursday, May 2, 2013
San Juan de Gatxugalatxe
The day finally came! I finally got to visit the site in Europe that I had been anticipating most. And it was right in my backyard!
We didn't have class today for Spanish Labor Day. I went with a group of friends this morning to San Juan de Gatxugalatxe which is an old monastery between the towns Bakio and Bermeo which are both in Bizkaia. It was about a 45 minute bus ride to Bakio to get to the starting point to get to the starting point.
We had to hike 3 miles to the starting point of the hike to San Juan by following the highway up a mountain. I won't forget to mention that this is a steep highway without shoulder to walk on.
The day was way better than we had expected. It was 60 degrees in the early morning and we had all packed coats and I had a backpack full of extra clothes in case it rained. We never ended up needing any of that. The walk up the mountain was beautiful and you could tell that this is a wealthier area to live in compared to the other parts of the country we had driven through in the past. All of the houses were huge. Along the walk there was tons of wildlife, or almost wildlife. Cows, sheep, roosters, dogs...everything that was normal for me. We did see a wild hog at one point but that was nothing compared to the lizards crawling around everywhere! I didn't even know before yesterday that there were lizards in Spain. You could hear them the entire hike lurking through the tall grass.
It took about an hour and a half to walk up the mountain and arrive at the beginning of our actual hike. The first part was downhill through rocks and dirt and the second part was up over 300 stairs to get to the church. There was hand railing most of the way but you didn't want to put your hand down on it because there were lizards everywhere. The hike wasn't half bad, and we ended up at the top in less than a half hour.
The view from the top of the hike was amazing. Indescribable actually. The best part of the view was the stairs that we had just climbed. The monastery wasn't anything special. The view from the monastery is the real attraction. We had lunch at the top and then headed back down.
We hiked back down the mountain which took a lot less time. We still had an hour before the bus would return to take us back to Bilbao so we sat at the beach for awhile. It had gotten cold by this point but there were still surfers out in the water. At the beach I had ran into Naia, the girl I tutor and her family. How weird to see someone you know when you visit a new town in a foreign country! I slept the entire bus ride home and then most of the afternoon after this trip.
We didn't have class today for Spanish Labor Day. I went with a group of friends this morning to San Juan de Gatxugalatxe which is an old monastery between the towns Bakio and Bermeo which are both in Bizkaia. It was about a 45 minute bus ride to Bakio to get to the starting point to get to the starting point.
We had to hike 3 miles to the starting point of the hike to San Juan by following the highway up a mountain. I won't forget to mention that this is a steep highway without shoulder to walk on.
The day was way better than we had expected. It was 60 degrees in the early morning and we had all packed coats and I had a backpack full of extra clothes in case it rained. We never ended up needing any of that. The walk up the mountain was beautiful and you could tell that this is a wealthier area to live in compared to the other parts of the country we had driven through in the past. All of the houses were huge. Along the walk there was tons of wildlife, or almost wildlife. Cows, sheep, roosters, dogs...everything that was normal for me. We did see a wild hog at one point but that was nothing compared to the lizards crawling around everywhere! I didn't even know before yesterday that there were lizards in Spain. You could hear them the entire hike lurking through the tall grass.
It took about an hour and a half to walk up the mountain and arrive at the beginning of our actual hike. The first part was downhill through rocks and dirt and the second part was up over 300 stairs to get to the church. There was hand railing most of the way but you didn't want to put your hand down on it because there were lizards everywhere. The hike wasn't half bad, and we ended up at the top in less than a half hour.
The view from the top of the hike was amazing. Indescribable actually. The best part of the view was the stairs that we had just climbed. The monastery wasn't anything special. The view from the monastery is the real attraction. We had lunch at the top and then headed back down.
We hiked back down the mountain which took a lot less time. We still had an hour before the bus would return to take us back to Bilbao so we sat at the beach for awhile. It had gotten cold by this point but there were still surfers out in the water. At the beach I had ran into Naia, the girl I tutor and her family. How weird to see someone you know when you visit a new town in a foreign country! I slept the entire bus ride home and then most of the afternoon after this trip.
Sunday, April 28, 2013
A Day in Lekeitio
I've been pretty horrible about getting out and actually doing things lately. The weather went back to crap, particularly when I leave my room until the time I decide to go back home. We can't even plan on beach weather for at least another week.
Yesterday Isabel and Perico took me on a road trip to Lekeitio which was about an hour and a half away from Bilbao. It used to be an old fishing village, but through the years it has become a vacation town for the people living in the cities. Martin says it's because it is home to the most beautiful beach in the world. Since I haven't seen many beaches I would have to agree with him, but it is a pretty cool place. The beach wasn't particularly big but off about 100 yards from the beach there is a small island which is pretty cute. Isabel said that during the summer on low tide the kids can walk over to the island and they play there all day. Now i just want to go back there in the summer and walk to the island.
It stopped raining just long enough for us to walk on the beach for awhile. Isabel probably thought I was incredibly sheltered when I got excited over finding a seashell on the beach. At least she helped me find more. Apparently when Perico was really young, the Queen of Belgium spent her summer in Lekeitio and had a spot reserved on the beach for an entire summer right by Perico's family. Apparently she even stuck her hand in Perico's sister's mouth to pull out a bee.
After the beach we went to take a quick break at Isabel's family's vacation apartment. It was more like a giant house and I had to follow Isabel around so I didn't get lost. We finished the day by walking through the pouring rain to see more of the town. It was a pretty nice day, overall. I'm sure it would have been a ton nicer without all the rain.
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This week we don't have class on Wednesday because it is Spanish Worker's Day, so pretty much Labor Day. This would be exciting if it wasn't going to be raining all day. The only things open are the metros and the bars.
Yesterday Isabel and Perico took me on a road trip to Lekeitio which was about an hour and a half away from Bilbao. It used to be an old fishing village, but through the years it has become a vacation town for the people living in the cities. Martin says it's because it is home to the most beautiful beach in the world. Since I haven't seen many beaches I would have to agree with him, but it is a pretty cool place. The beach wasn't particularly big but off about 100 yards from the beach there is a small island which is pretty cute. Isabel said that during the summer on low tide the kids can walk over to the island and they play there all day. Now i just want to go back there in the summer and walk to the island.
It stopped raining just long enough for us to walk on the beach for awhile. Isabel probably thought I was incredibly sheltered when I got excited over finding a seashell on the beach. At least she helped me find more. Apparently when Perico was really young, the Queen of Belgium spent her summer in Lekeitio and had a spot reserved on the beach for an entire summer right by Perico's family. Apparently she even stuck her hand in Perico's sister's mouth to pull out a bee.
After the beach we went to take a quick break at Isabel's family's vacation apartment. It was more like a giant house and I had to follow Isabel around so I didn't get lost. We finished the day by walking through the pouring rain to see more of the town. It was a pretty nice day, overall. I'm sure it would have been a ton nicer without all the rain.
Monday, April 22, 2013
Dublin
So I am back from a longish weekend in Dublin, Ireland and it was definitely worth skipping class for. Not that I like those classes anyway..
A group of 6 other girls and I left Thursday mid-afternoon to catch a bus to our flight out of Santander. We flew to Dublin around 6:30 and sat on the plane by a local from Northern Ireland who had tons to tell us about Ireland. He even told us what not to say to stay out of trouble since there is still a lot of turmoil between the Irish and Northern Irish.
Our hostel was so easy to find! Probably because it was right in the middle of everything!! We were so lucky to be paying so little to be right next to everything. The staff was beyond awesome at helping us with even the stupidest little questions. They even let us move beds so we could sleep by the plug-ins to charge our phones even though they have a strict no moving rule.
The first day we started out bright and early with a bus tour to the Cliffs of Moher which are on the opposite side of Ireland. We drove through the countryside and stopped occasionally at old castles and churches. We learned the ABC's of Ireland (Another Bloody Church, Another Bloody Castle, and Another Bloody Cliff). We listened to traditional Irish music the entire 4 hour ride there which normally would have made me wish for death, but it actually helped me get in the spirit.
Our first big stop was at the Mini Cliffs. The land was so rugged here that it was crazy hard to walk out to the actual cliffs. There was a lot of hopping from rock to rock. The cliffs weren't terribly high. 50 feet would be my best guess. Probably more though. The waves crashed like crazy so it was a sure death if you fell. The tour guide made me stop running once. Not sure why :p After we visited the Mini Cliffs we ate lunch and headed to the Cliffs of Moher.
The Cliffs of Moher was absolutely incredible. The cliffs were triple or even quadruple the size of the Mini Cliffs and went on for as far as you could see. The majority of the land surrounding the cliffs were was walled off because it's such a popular suicide spot. There were still search boats in the water looking for the most recent suicide. There is a section that isn't walled off and that is exactly where we hurried off to. You had to be very careful, though, because the land surrounding the cliffs was all grass that was wet underneath. The wind was pretty crazy too and could be enough to through you off the cliff if you were close enough to the edge. There were signs everywhere giving you a number to call if you wanted to hurt yourself and needed help. Our tour guide said that in the summer months there are volunteers that go around talking to all of the tourists making sure they aren't depressed. I'm sure if someone was trying to evaluate me, it would be enough for me to throw them off the cliff.
We finished the tour in a small town an hour or so away from the cliffs. There is a river that runs through that sometimes has dolphins. We unfortunately didn't get to see any. We then drove the remaining 2 hours home and were very thankful for regular paved roads since the majority of the journey to the cliffs was bumpier than a gravel road. That night we went out and checked out Dublin's famous Temple Bar scene and hung out at a few different pubs.
The next day we were able to sleep in a bit and we went on a guided walking tour through the city. It was great because we got to hear the history that went with the buildings that we were seeing. It lasted way longer than necessary though and I was so glad when we were done with the tour to have lunch. After lunch we visited the Guinness Factory tour and got to see what all goes down there. We got to do a taste test and practice pouring our own. The tour itself was pretty expensive but I justified it because we got about 6 euros worth of free beer along the way.
That night we were so tired that we barely made it out of bed to eat dinner. We might as well have skipped it. The "best fish and chips place in Dublin" that our hostel suggested was nasty. It had no flavor, just grease. We didn't even contemplate going out that night. Our shuttle to the airport was going to leave at 7:30 am anyway and we couldn't even stay awake long enough to get ready. We barely woke up the next day either and someone else's alarm finally woke us up with 20 minutes to spare before we had to leave.
I absolutely loved Ireland and would definitely go back if I had more time. The people there are amazing. You don't have to ask for directions. If they see you are lost they will do anything they can to help you. They start conversations, offer to take your picture, you name it. And their accents are awesome!
Only 24 days left in Europe!!
A group of 6 other girls and I left Thursday mid-afternoon to catch a bus to our flight out of Santander. We flew to Dublin around 6:30 and sat on the plane by a local from Northern Ireland who had tons to tell us about Ireland. He even told us what not to say to stay out of trouble since there is still a lot of turmoil between the Irish and Northern Irish.
Our hostel was so easy to find! Probably because it was right in the middle of everything!! We were so lucky to be paying so little to be right next to everything. The staff was beyond awesome at helping us with even the stupidest little questions. They even let us move beds so we could sleep by the plug-ins to charge our phones even though they have a strict no moving rule.
The first day we started out bright and early with a bus tour to the Cliffs of Moher which are on the opposite side of Ireland. We drove through the countryside and stopped occasionally at old castles and churches. We learned the ABC's of Ireland (Another Bloody Church, Another Bloody Castle, and Another Bloody Cliff). We listened to traditional Irish music the entire 4 hour ride there which normally would have made me wish for death, but it actually helped me get in the spirit.
Our first big stop was at the Mini Cliffs. The land was so rugged here that it was crazy hard to walk out to the actual cliffs. There was a lot of hopping from rock to rock. The cliffs weren't terribly high. 50 feet would be my best guess. Probably more though. The waves crashed like crazy so it was a sure death if you fell. The tour guide made me stop running once. Not sure why :p After we visited the Mini Cliffs we ate lunch and headed to the Cliffs of Moher.
The Cliffs of Moher was absolutely incredible. The cliffs were triple or even quadruple the size of the Mini Cliffs and went on for as far as you could see. The majority of the land surrounding the cliffs were was walled off because it's such a popular suicide spot. There were still search boats in the water looking for the most recent suicide. There is a section that isn't walled off and that is exactly where we hurried off to. You had to be very careful, though, because the land surrounding the cliffs was all grass that was wet underneath. The wind was pretty crazy too and could be enough to through you off the cliff if you were close enough to the edge. There were signs everywhere giving you a number to call if you wanted to hurt yourself and needed help. Our tour guide said that in the summer months there are volunteers that go around talking to all of the tourists making sure they aren't depressed. I'm sure if someone was trying to evaluate me, it would be enough for me to throw them off the cliff.
We finished the tour in a small town an hour or so away from the cliffs. There is a river that runs through that sometimes has dolphins. We unfortunately didn't get to see any. We then drove the remaining 2 hours home and were very thankful for regular paved roads since the majority of the journey to the cliffs was bumpier than a gravel road. That night we went out and checked out Dublin's famous Temple Bar scene and hung out at a few different pubs.
The next day we were able to sleep in a bit and we went on a guided walking tour through the city. It was great because we got to hear the history that went with the buildings that we were seeing. It lasted way longer than necessary though and I was so glad when we were done with the tour to have lunch. After lunch we visited the Guinness Factory tour and got to see what all goes down there. We got to do a taste test and practice pouring our own. The tour itself was pretty expensive but I justified it because we got about 6 euros worth of free beer along the way.
That night we were so tired that we barely made it out of bed to eat dinner. We might as well have skipped it. The "best fish and chips place in Dublin" that our hostel suggested was nasty. It had no flavor, just grease. We didn't even contemplate going out that night. Our shuttle to the airport was going to leave at 7:30 am anyway and we couldn't even stay awake long enough to get ready. We barely woke up the next day either and someone else's alarm finally woke us up with 20 minutes to spare before we had to leave.
I absolutely loved Ireland and would definitely go back if I had more time. The people there are amazing. You don't have to ask for directions. If they see you are lost they will do anything they can to help you. They start conversations, offer to take your picture, you name it. And their accents are awesome!
Only 24 days left in Europe!!
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
Beautiful Week in Bilbao
So we've been experiencing highs in the 80's all week, so that's been nice :))) In honor of the sun finally shining, I spent my Sunday at the beach! We went to Sopelana which is about a half hour metro ride from my house in Getxo. It's absolutely beautiful there. Before I had visited I wanted to plan a trip to one of the Spanish islands, but now I'm saving my money and going to the beach in Bilbao every chance I get.
Just so you all know, Sopelana is a nude beach. This is one of those things that you know you will run into when you go to Europe, but you forget until you see the boobs staring you right in the face.
I turned in my first major Spanish paper this week and I'm sure it caused more stress than it was worth. My guess is the teacher won't even read it since there are 30 kids in our class and the papers are all around 5 pages. But I guess whatever!
Tomorrow I leave for a long weekend in Dublin. I'm not sure of much that's going on over the weekend. It's more of a spur of the moment trip for me and my friends have done most of the planning. I know on Friday we will be going to see the famous cliffs and countryside in a tour. At some point during the week we will be touring the Guinness factory. Should be a fun weekend!
Just so you all know, Sopelana is a nude beach. This is one of those things that you know you will run into when you go to Europe, but you forget until you see the boobs staring you right in the face.
I turned in my first major Spanish paper this week and I'm sure it caused more stress than it was worth. My guess is the teacher won't even read it since there are 30 kids in our class and the papers are all around 5 pages. But I guess whatever!
Tomorrow I leave for a long weekend in Dublin. I'm not sure of much that's going on over the weekend. It's more of a spur of the moment trip for me and my friends have done most of the planning. I know on Friday we will be going to see the famous cliffs and countryside in a tour. At some point during the week we will be touring the Guinness factory. Should be a fun weekend!
Saturday, April 13, 2013
The Rest of Spring Break
I've been pretty lazy about writing my blog lately with all of my homework and naps. My mom said yesterday that she was ready to read about herself and I needed to hop to finishing my blog and only to say nice things about her so I will give that a try.
I only had a day and a half in Prague. To actually see the city, I definitely needed more, but I was so happy to be able to leave when I did. Prague is known for its incredible castles and cathedrals which make a fantastic view for the entire city. It's a small city compared to all the other main attractions in Europe. Most people get around by taking the tram instead of the metro, which I never once (technically) paid for... the city was backwards about some things...
The sites definitely were beautiful; the cathedral was probably the prettiest I've seen in all of Europe. And there were tons of great things to see. It would have been wonderful if it hadn't been so cold. At one point to escape the cold my friends Tyler, Alexa, Kassi, and I visited the Mid-evil Torture Museum just to warm up. I learned too much. Also that day outside one of the cathedrals, we saw two girls in the biggest most ornate ball gowns we'd ever seen. They were being photographed with the city skyline in the background and there was a crowd gathered around to watch. We stopped and watched for a bit too and found out that they were 15 years old and their families had flown them to Prague from Mexico for their quinceneras. We took their pictures too :)
My least favorite part about Prague was without a doubt the people. The best way I could come up with to describe it is that the city and everything inside of it is stuck in the Cold War. The non-touristy buildings were crappy and falling apart and very dark looking, but not as dark looking as the people. It was like they didn't want the tourists in the city, especially if they spoke English and they would not make it easy for you if you did speak English. Let's just say I felt very uncomfortable the majority of the time and was very happy to be leaving.
By far the best part of the trip was the food. I ate hotwings in the hostel but that was nothing compared to the food in Prague. I couldn't tell you what I ate or even spell it, but I was in heaven for the 2 dinners I ate in Prague. Everyone else who visited the city for Spring Break said the same. They are also known for their cheap beers in Prague. Though they cost 35 crowns (Czech money) it came out to be a little over a dollar in American money :) Beer is definitely cheaper than water.
The biggest snag in that part of the trip came when I tried to leave the city. I had plans to fly back to Bilbao by myself and so I took off for the metro to the airport. It isn't necessary to show a ticket to get on the metro and you can get through the gates without even paying. This had been what I did all weekend, but this time it didn't work out. There were ticket guards waiting at the entrance to the train and they were randomly asking people to show their tickets. I knew right away that me traveling with a suitcase, I would be racially profiled. They asked for my ticket and I played dumb until they started speaking English. I pretended to look for the ticket that I knew I didn't have and finally I said that I would just have to go buy another. But the guard wouldn't accept that. She said I would have to pay 800 crowns or be arrested. I had spent all of my money before arriving at the metro so I tried to explain to the lady that I would have to go to an ATM. Her lack of English was frustrating. Finally she said that I would just have to go to an ATM (oh, really?). I was going to try to run from there but she followed me to the ATM. Luckily it was only 40 US dollars that I had to pay which probably would have been close to what I would have paid for an all day transport pass for the 2 days. I'm just happy I'm not in Czech prison.
From there I spent a day laid over in Milan where it was too rainy to go out and see anything, so I stayed in the airport until my plane left for Bilbao. The next morning I went with my host family to a small town outside of Bayona, France to stay in their friends' vacation house. It was a calm 3 days without wifi which I somehow survived.
We returned to Bilbao on Sunday with just enough time for me to eat and pick my family up from the airport. They got in at 5 and I took them straight to our hotel, which was by far the nicest place we've ever been allowed to stay in.
We had dinner with my host family the first night which went much better than expected. My family loves them and my host family speaks much better English than they let on. My family even enjoyed the food besides Jake who was still suffering from a bad experience at an airport restaurant.
We left the next morning at 8 am for Barcelona which meant we were up by 3 am. Waking up at 3 am was a common theme for the week. It was a little tough to find the hotel that first day and we knew right away why. It was in the middle of Sketchville, complete with the prostitutes to greet us at the door. And of course this was the first hotel in the history of the world that refused to let anyone check in a minute before the scheduled time. So no rest for us, we had to start on the city right away.
It was rainy and a bit nasty outside and we couldn't find a city map or anything (and of course I forgot that there is an app for that). We spent the day exploring La Rambla, the main tourist street in Barcelona. It actually completely sucked. We aren't souvenir people and all of the real stores were closed because it was the last day of the Easter holiday. Every restaurant we went to was a fight so we didn't get a lot done and everyone was exhausted. Finally we decided to go back to the hotel an hour early and see if the room was ready. We should have known it wouldn't be. So we pretty much slept on tables for an hour before the lady let us into our rooms. We napped for quite awhile after that.
The next day we had an equally early flight to Paris but it was definitely worth it. We got to see nearly everything that first day. We somehow managed to convince Jake to go up on the Eiffel Tower which was more difficult than it sounds. We were sad though because the top deck of the tower was closed to the public. We still enjoyed our view. When we got down, everything was surrounded by military men with gigantic guns and a crazy amount of cops. We kept running into them and decided it was probably smart to get out of the area. It didn't work. They were all over town. We later found out that there had been a terrorist threat a few days earlier which would probably explain all of the guns.
Our second day in Paris we went through Notre Dame Cathedral and my parents put a lock on the Lover's Bridge (which was gross). We finished the day "at the museums" before we had to pack up and head back to the airport to catch our flight back to Barcelona.
Our second day in Barcelona was much better. We got away from the touristy street and went to see the real attractions. Sagrada Familia was incredible like I had thought it would be but by the time we got to Park Guell it was pouring and everyone was tired. We voted that instead of staying in our nasty hotel one more night that we would spend the night in the airport since we had an early flight back to Bilbao. The sleeping thing worked out great.... Jackson and I watched ladies clean the bathroom and walked around a bit. That was the extent of our sleep. Lucky for us, the actual nice hotel in Bilbao let us into our room right away so we could sleep all morning.
Of course Bilbao was ready to welcome my family with its usual weather. We broke 3 umbrellas that first day in Bilbao. That really ruins plans when all of the attractions are outdoors. We went and saw the Guggenheim and my University and shopped at the mall. The next day it rained even more. That turned into a mostly napping and shopping day even though we did get to go look at Casco Viejo. We were invited to another supper at my house that night. I also took Jackson out for his first bar experience. We were up by 5 the next morning to get the family back to the airport.
I only had a day and a half in Prague. To actually see the city, I definitely needed more, but I was so happy to be able to leave when I did. Prague is known for its incredible castles and cathedrals which make a fantastic view for the entire city. It's a small city compared to all the other main attractions in Europe. Most people get around by taking the tram instead of the metro, which I never once (technically) paid for... the city was backwards about some things...
The sites definitely were beautiful; the cathedral was probably the prettiest I've seen in all of Europe. And there were tons of great things to see. It would have been wonderful if it hadn't been so cold. At one point to escape the cold my friends Tyler, Alexa, Kassi, and I visited the Mid-evil Torture Museum just to warm up. I learned too much. Also that day outside one of the cathedrals, we saw two girls in the biggest most ornate ball gowns we'd ever seen. They were being photographed with the city skyline in the background and there was a crowd gathered around to watch. We stopped and watched for a bit too and found out that they were 15 years old and their families had flown them to Prague from Mexico for their quinceneras. We took their pictures too :)
My least favorite part about Prague was without a doubt the people. The best way I could come up with to describe it is that the city and everything inside of it is stuck in the Cold War. The non-touristy buildings were crappy and falling apart and very dark looking, but not as dark looking as the people. It was like they didn't want the tourists in the city, especially if they spoke English and they would not make it easy for you if you did speak English. Let's just say I felt very uncomfortable the majority of the time and was very happy to be leaving.
By far the best part of the trip was the food. I ate hotwings in the hostel but that was nothing compared to the food in Prague. I couldn't tell you what I ate or even spell it, but I was in heaven for the 2 dinners I ate in Prague. Everyone else who visited the city for Spring Break said the same. They are also known for their cheap beers in Prague. Though they cost 35 crowns (Czech money) it came out to be a little over a dollar in American money :) Beer is definitely cheaper than water.
The biggest snag in that part of the trip came when I tried to leave the city. I had plans to fly back to Bilbao by myself and so I took off for the metro to the airport. It isn't necessary to show a ticket to get on the metro and you can get through the gates without even paying. This had been what I did all weekend, but this time it didn't work out. There were ticket guards waiting at the entrance to the train and they were randomly asking people to show their tickets. I knew right away that me traveling with a suitcase, I would be racially profiled. They asked for my ticket and I played dumb until they started speaking English. I pretended to look for the ticket that I knew I didn't have and finally I said that I would just have to go buy another. But the guard wouldn't accept that. She said I would have to pay 800 crowns or be arrested. I had spent all of my money before arriving at the metro so I tried to explain to the lady that I would have to go to an ATM. Her lack of English was frustrating. Finally she said that I would just have to go to an ATM (oh, really?). I was going to try to run from there but she followed me to the ATM. Luckily it was only 40 US dollars that I had to pay which probably would have been close to what I would have paid for an all day transport pass for the 2 days. I'm just happy I'm not in Czech prison.
From there I spent a day laid over in Milan where it was too rainy to go out and see anything, so I stayed in the airport until my plane left for Bilbao. The next morning I went with my host family to a small town outside of Bayona, France to stay in their friends' vacation house. It was a calm 3 days without wifi which I somehow survived.
We returned to Bilbao on Sunday with just enough time for me to eat and pick my family up from the airport. They got in at 5 and I took them straight to our hotel, which was by far the nicest place we've ever been allowed to stay in.
We had dinner with my host family the first night which went much better than expected. My family loves them and my host family speaks much better English than they let on. My family even enjoyed the food besides Jake who was still suffering from a bad experience at an airport restaurant.
We left the next morning at 8 am for Barcelona which meant we were up by 3 am. Waking up at 3 am was a common theme for the week. It was a little tough to find the hotel that first day and we knew right away why. It was in the middle of Sketchville, complete with the prostitutes to greet us at the door. And of course this was the first hotel in the history of the world that refused to let anyone check in a minute before the scheduled time. So no rest for us, we had to start on the city right away.
It was rainy and a bit nasty outside and we couldn't find a city map or anything (and of course I forgot that there is an app for that). We spent the day exploring La Rambla, the main tourist street in Barcelona. It actually completely sucked. We aren't souvenir people and all of the real stores were closed because it was the last day of the Easter holiday. Every restaurant we went to was a fight so we didn't get a lot done and everyone was exhausted. Finally we decided to go back to the hotel an hour early and see if the room was ready. We should have known it wouldn't be. So we pretty much slept on tables for an hour before the lady let us into our rooms. We napped for quite awhile after that.
The next day we had an equally early flight to Paris but it was definitely worth it. We got to see nearly everything that first day. We somehow managed to convince Jake to go up on the Eiffel Tower which was more difficult than it sounds. We were sad though because the top deck of the tower was closed to the public. We still enjoyed our view. When we got down, everything was surrounded by military men with gigantic guns and a crazy amount of cops. We kept running into them and decided it was probably smart to get out of the area. It didn't work. They were all over town. We later found out that there had been a terrorist threat a few days earlier which would probably explain all of the guns.
Our second day in Paris we went through Notre Dame Cathedral and my parents put a lock on the Lover's Bridge (which was gross). We finished the day "at the museums" before we had to pack up and head back to the airport to catch our flight back to Barcelona.
Our second day in Barcelona was much better. We got away from the touristy street and went to see the real attractions. Sagrada Familia was incredible like I had thought it would be but by the time we got to Park Guell it was pouring and everyone was tired. We voted that instead of staying in our nasty hotel one more night that we would spend the night in the airport since we had an early flight back to Bilbao. The sleeping thing worked out great.... Jackson and I watched ladies clean the bathroom and walked around a bit. That was the extent of our sleep. Lucky for us, the actual nice hotel in Bilbao let us into our room right away so we could sleep all morning.
Of course Bilbao was ready to welcome my family with its usual weather. We broke 3 umbrellas that first day in Bilbao. That really ruins plans when all of the attractions are outdoors. We went and saw the Guggenheim and my University and shopped at the mall. The next day it rained even more. That turned into a mostly napping and shopping day even though we did get to go look at Casco Viejo. We were invited to another supper at my house that night. I also took Jackson out for his first bar experience. We were up by 5 the next morning to get the family back to the airport.
Monday, April 8, 2013
Spring Break- London
Well I'm home and alive. I'm exhausted and I barely remember anything about my trip. There was too much going on and too little sleep. But I will do my best to fill you in on it all (probably not all at once).
We started in London where our flight didn't get in until around 11 at night. By the time we took the bus into the city, we had already missed the metro closing, which got us stuck in the train/bus station without a very good idea of where we were going. The locals we asked all said it was best to take a taxi to our hostel. It was sleeting that night and for some reason there was a line to get a taxi. We were about 10 deep in the line which ended up being over a half hour wait with barely a jacket on and not wearing the warmest clothes. Other taxi drivers kept driving by to look at the line but not to pick people up, so it must not be normal to have to wait in line. Anyway, it was 2 am before we got to our hostel.
The hostel had a bar on the main level and of course the party was still going strong when we checked in. The guy at the front desk wanted us to go have a beer before we checked in, but we were too cranky and he was annoying. Our first night was in a 22 person room which was a huge mistake. People came in at all hours of the night and had "whispering" conversations. We didn't sleep that night.
When we woke up, we were going to go on the free walking tour of the city because none of us were very confident about navigating the city on our own. We waited forever for the tour guide to get to the hostel before someone at the front desk called to see where he was. Apparently the tour guide had gotten in a car accident and wouldn't make it. We were given 15 minutes to run to the next site where another free tour would start. We were in a group with other girls from our hostel who had all the information on where we were going..... or so we thought. When we were buying our metro passes, they all left without us and we had no idea where we were. We decided to make our own walking tour and found the London Bridge, Tower Bridge, and Tower of London all on our own.
We did the Tour of London tour and got to see all the sites where royals were killed over the centuries. My favorite part was seeing all the crown jewels. I was meant to be a princess I believe. After the tour, we ate at the best fish and chips restaurant that exists. I had a fish the size of a large plate and absolutely loved it. It was probably one of the top 5 moments of my trip.
The entire time in London was absolutely freezing. There was sleet or snow the entire time and no matter what you did to stay warm, it wasn't enough. The second day, we went to a street market in a lesser known neighborhood where they sold brand new clothes for dirt cheap. I bought a military jacket for 5 pounds! And of course they also had London souvenirs where I bought my Will and Kate mug :)))
We saw pretty much everything of any importance in London. Of course both my camera and phone were dead for Westminster Abby, the only reason I was in London. One of the highlights of the trip was visiting Kings Cross Station where I got to see Platform 9 3/4 from Harry Potter. We waited in line nearly half an hour to get our picture taken pushing our cart of belongings through the brick wall into the Hogwarts train. It was worth the wait for sure! After you take your own picture, there is a professional photographer there to take pictures of his own for you to buy. I absolutely hate buying pictures from tourist traps, but guess who spent 8 pounds on a picture of herself. This girl!! Worth every penny :)
We had to leave our hostel at 3 in the morning to get to Prague once our time in London was over. It was the first time I'd ever flown alone. More in the next blog.
We started in London where our flight didn't get in until around 11 at night. By the time we took the bus into the city, we had already missed the metro closing, which got us stuck in the train/bus station without a very good idea of where we were going. The locals we asked all said it was best to take a taxi to our hostel. It was sleeting that night and for some reason there was a line to get a taxi. We were about 10 deep in the line which ended up being over a half hour wait with barely a jacket on and not wearing the warmest clothes. Other taxi drivers kept driving by to look at the line but not to pick people up, so it must not be normal to have to wait in line. Anyway, it was 2 am before we got to our hostel.
The hostel had a bar on the main level and of course the party was still going strong when we checked in. The guy at the front desk wanted us to go have a beer before we checked in, but we were too cranky and he was annoying. Our first night was in a 22 person room which was a huge mistake. People came in at all hours of the night and had "whispering" conversations. We didn't sleep that night.
When we woke up, we were going to go on the free walking tour of the city because none of us were very confident about navigating the city on our own. We waited forever for the tour guide to get to the hostel before someone at the front desk called to see where he was. Apparently the tour guide had gotten in a car accident and wouldn't make it. We were given 15 minutes to run to the next site where another free tour would start. We were in a group with other girls from our hostel who had all the information on where we were going..... or so we thought. When we were buying our metro passes, they all left without us and we had no idea where we were. We decided to make our own walking tour and found the London Bridge, Tower Bridge, and Tower of London all on our own.
We did the Tour of London tour and got to see all the sites where royals were killed over the centuries. My favorite part was seeing all the crown jewels. I was meant to be a princess I believe. After the tour, we ate at the best fish and chips restaurant that exists. I had a fish the size of a large plate and absolutely loved it. It was probably one of the top 5 moments of my trip.
The entire time in London was absolutely freezing. There was sleet or snow the entire time and no matter what you did to stay warm, it wasn't enough. The second day, we went to a street market in a lesser known neighborhood where they sold brand new clothes for dirt cheap. I bought a military jacket for 5 pounds! And of course they also had London souvenirs where I bought my Will and Kate mug :)))
We saw pretty much everything of any importance in London. Of course both my camera and phone were dead for Westminster Abby, the only reason I was in London. One of the highlights of the trip was visiting Kings Cross Station where I got to see Platform 9 3/4 from Harry Potter. We waited in line nearly half an hour to get our picture taken pushing our cart of belongings through the brick wall into the Hogwarts train. It was worth the wait for sure! After you take your own picture, there is a professional photographer there to take pictures of his own for you to buy. I absolutely hate buying pictures from tourist traps, but guess who spent 8 pounds on a picture of herself. This girl!! Worth every penny :)
We had to leave our hostel at 3 in the morning to get to Prague once our time in London was over. It was the first time I'd ever flown alone. More in the next blog.
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
#SB2013
Even though I've done nothing but nap since my last blog, I feel the need to give a quick update before I drop off the face of the Earth for 2 weeks.
Here is the Spring Break 2013 itinerary:
March 22nd- Heading to London!!! after a long day of traveling of course
March 26th- Leaving London for Prague in the Czech Republic!
March 28th- Back to Bilbao for a night in my own bed.
March 29th- Bayona, France to my host family's friends' vacation house for a quiet weekend in the South of France.
March 31st- Back to Bilbao again to pick my family up from the airport!!!!!
April 1st- A day in Barcelona with the fam.
April 2nd- Visiting Paris!
April 3rd- Finish Paris and return to Barcelona before bed.
April 5- Back to Bilbao to see all we have to offer here!
April 7- Bye bye to the fam/ sleep through the next day's classes.
Here is the Spring Break 2013 itinerary:
March 22nd- Heading to London!!! after a long day of traveling of course
March 26th- Leaving London for Prague in the Czech Republic!
March 28th- Back to Bilbao for a night in my own bed.
March 29th- Bayona, France to my host family's friends' vacation house for a quiet weekend in the South of France.
March 31st- Back to Bilbao again to pick my family up from the airport!!!!!
April 1st- A day in Barcelona with the fam.
April 2nd- Visiting Paris!
April 3rd- Finish Paris and return to Barcelona before bed.
April 5- Back to Bilbao to see all we have to offer here!
April 7- Bye bye to the fam/ sleep through the next day's classes.
Sunday, March 17, 2013
17/3/2013
Today feels like the calm before the storm. It's the last full day of peace before my 2 week vacation starts. I'm proud to say that I'm making my lazy time count.
Nothing terribly exciting has happened this week. Again, it's the calm before the storm. I've had a few tests and papers, but nothing worth stressing about. I took Friday off instead of being a human, though I did enjoy a run by the river, which is actually more gorgeous than I can describe. After this, I took a much needed, yet short, nap. I'm sure all of you love to read about my many naps :) That night, I went bar hopping with my friends Danielle and Gus. We learned by the third neighborhood we visited that it wasn't a very popular day for kids our age to be out at the bars. It was an early night back at the house.
Saturday, Isabel and Perico took me to Mount Arantxa which is pretty much right out the door of my university. We took the funicular (tram) to the top of the mountain to see the best view of all of Bilbao. You could see each individual neighborhood and I'm pretty sure the only parts of the city you couldn't see were the parts hidden by the mountain (my university). If you walked to the other side of the mountain you could see the entire city of Getxo, which is pretty much Bilbao. Off in the distance, you could even see the ocean. There are even restaurants, houses, and a rec center on the top of the mountain. And also a monument in honor of those killed in ETA's terrorist attacks. I will definitely be bringing my family for a visit in 2 weeks!
Saturday night, Isabel surprised me by setting up a "play-date" with a "16-year-old." It turned out to just be me walking around town with two FIFTEEN-year-olds! I've definitely never felt more twenty! It turns out the girl's (who's name is too Basque for me to remember) mom works with Isabel. Though I'm not exactly sure what Isabel's intentions were, it was nice to meet new people. If only they were actually my age. Isabel made sure to remind me before she left me with them that they were too young for me to take to the bar.
Today my family went to lunch at a friend's of Isabel and Perico. It turns out they were the parents of the girl I had met the night before. My "aunt and uncle" were also there for lunch which always makes me feel more comfortable. After the father (Carlos, I believe) offered me a beer, he informed me that I would be eating at the kiddie table. I was definitely worried because I was having trouble understanding Spanish. Usually when I'm having that problem, I sit by my "uncle" Jose Augustine and he talks slow about countries that I should visit. It's definitely comforting. But I was fine at the kiddie table with my friend. I got to eat paella, kebab frozen pizza, and plenty of other house specialties. At some point I was talked into trying "duck butter" before I realized what it was. I wasn't aware before today that it was an actual thing. I'm sure if I was with my uncle it wouldn't have happened. At least I got a brownie afterwords.
4 more days until Spring Break!!
Nothing terribly exciting has happened this week. Again, it's the calm before the storm. I've had a few tests and papers, but nothing worth stressing about. I took Friday off instead of being a human, though I did enjoy a run by the river, which is actually more gorgeous than I can describe. After this, I took a much needed, yet short, nap. I'm sure all of you love to read about my many naps :) That night, I went bar hopping with my friends Danielle and Gus. We learned by the third neighborhood we visited that it wasn't a very popular day for kids our age to be out at the bars. It was an early night back at the house.
Saturday, Isabel and Perico took me to Mount Arantxa which is pretty much right out the door of my university. We took the funicular (tram) to the top of the mountain to see the best view of all of Bilbao. You could see each individual neighborhood and I'm pretty sure the only parts of the city you couldn't see were the parts hidden by the mountain (my university). If you walked to the other side of the mountain you could see the entire city of Getxo, which is pretty much Bilbao. Off in the distance, you could even see the ocean. There are even restaurants, houses, and a rec center on the top of the mountain. And also a monument in honor of those killed in ETA's terrorist attacks. I will definitely be bringing my family for a visit in 2 weeks!
Saturday night, Isabel surprised me by setting up a "play-date" with a "16-year-old." It turned out to just be me walking around town with two FIFTEEN-year-olds! I've definitely never felt more twenty! It turns out the girl's (who's name is too Basque for me to remember) mom works with Isabel. Though I'm not exactly sure what Isabel's intentions were, it was nice to meet new people. If only they were actually my age. Isabel made sure to remind me before she left me with them that they were too young for me to take to the bar.
Today my family went to lunch at a friend's of Isabel and Perico. It turns out they were the parents of the girl I had met the night before. My "aunt and uncle" were also there for lunch which always makes me feel more comfortable. After the father (Carlos, I believe) offered me a beer, he informed me that I would be eating at the kiddie table. I was definitely worried because I was having trouble understanding Spanish. Usually when I'm having that problem, I sit by my "uncle" Jose Augustine and he talks slow about countries that I should visit. It's definitely comforting. But I was fine at the kiddie table with my friend. I got to eat paella, kebab frozen pizza, and plenty of other house specialties. At some point I was talked into trying "duck butter" before I realized what it was. I wasn't aware before today that it was an actual thing. I'm sure if I was with my uncle it wouldn't have happened. At least I got a brownie afterwords.
4 more days until Spring Break!!
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Madrid y Segoiva
So I've been home from my weekend trip for three days now and I finally feel like writing about it. I've really just been lazy. I finally got Project Free TV to work on my computer, so I haven't been doing much besides watching the 3rd season of Pretty Little Liars... But anyway!
Our group left for Segovia Friday morning and took the four hour bus ride to the city. They picked Segovia because it was a good stopping point with many cites between Bilbao and Madrid. Segovia was highly influenced by the Romans when the city was being built. The highlight of the city is the aqueduct system running through the city. It is built entirely of stone and reaches who knows how far. I couldn't see the end. The stones were placed without using any type of mud or mortar. This means that the constructors had to place the stones in the perfect position to prevent leaks. Since they are all different shapes and sizes that had to have been pretty hard especially without the technology we have today. Even the architecture of the aqueduct was incredible.
After lunch we went on to a castle on the outskirts of town which is where I believe was the home of the king and queen of Castillo or something like that. I wish I had more background history on Spain so I could understand more when guides are speaking Spanish to us, but I think I pick up on enough. The castle seemed like it also served as a fort and was surrounded by moats. At the end of the tour, we were able to climb to the roof and look out at all of Segovia. From there, we left for our hotel in Madrid.
We stayed in a hotel that was probably a little bit too nice to let a large group of college kids stay. There was a bidet in the bathroom and also a phone. Definitely too fancy. It was also where the Canary Island professional soccer team was staying. The hotel restaurant served an all you can eat buffet for every meal which was included in our trip. We all took all you can eat very seriously! I'm just starting to get my apatite back.
The next day we started out with a bus tour of the main part of the city. Madrid is enormous. The lady giving the tour was actually very annoying so I didn't feel bad about falling asleep halfway through. We got off the bus at Puerta del Sol which is a plaza that is very popular for travelers. I will never understand why because there was nothing to see. There was a small protest being held there and tons of people running around in knock-off character costumes. I was beyond thrilled to see Mickey and Minnie. Of course I was going to get my picture taken with them and get away from the annoying tour guide for a bit. My friends and I took lots of pictures with Mickey and we said "gracias" and "adios" when we were done. But then Mickey took his head off and held out his hand and started demanding money. We were all shocked and didn't understand what was going on so we pretended to not understand and ran back to our group. The tour guide then decided to inform us that the people in the costumes were actually just street beggers and it was customary to pay them for taking pictures with you. We avoided people in costumes the rest of the day, which was difficult since there were probably 20 or 30 people doing the same thing.
We continued our walking tour and we saw the first restaurant in the world. I'm sure there were probably other restaurant before this one, but I'm guessing it was the first licensed restaurant. From there we walked past some other sites which had no significance to me. And then we got to the cathedral and the royal palace!! The palace was absolutely incredible. I was beyond pumped to be able to go on a tour of the inside... until I found out that they strictly prohibit pictures. How was I supposed to make it through the entire palace without taking one picture? It seemed like the security team was challenging me to see how many pictures I could take. I challenge I willingly accepted. I believe I won, because I came away with about 24 pictures. They are all horrible, but I'm proud of every single one of them. Others weren't so lucky and were forced to delete theirs when they got caught. They just don't have my moves.
The rest of our day consisted of free time. By the time my group of friends had the subway system figured out, we had used up pretty much two hours. Our goal was to get to the Reina Sofia Museum, which houses modern art pieces, so we could see the painting of Gernika which we had been studying in our classes. We didn't get the subway figured out to take us directly to the museum, so we got off at Puerta del Sol and found our way walking. It took forever and we were all exhausted. But we did end up making it and we got free admission since it was Saturday. We saw the Gernika and a few other rooms of paintings before we got tired and left so that we could make it back to the hotel in time for dinner.
That night, most of the kids in my program went out to Capital, which is a 7 story nightclub. As lovely as that sounded, I was not feeling paying $15 dollars to stay out until 6 am just to get up again at 8:30. I got plenty of sleep :)
The next morning we visited the Prado Museum. There were a few famous works featured there that I had never heard of, but this museum was my favorite part of the trip by far. All of the art was from the Middle Ages and was done for the houses of kings and queens, or done by famous artists. Everything was so real, and if I wasn't so exhausted, I could have walked through the museum all day. Luckily, I didn't have to. After grabbing lunch at the hotel, we headed back to Bilbao.
After the weekend, I realized just how much I love Bilbao. It's so peaceful, quiet, and safe. I never feel like I'm going to be mugged and even though I am careful with my purse, it's never my main concern. I also missed the comfort of my host family's house. Despite all of this, I am beyond ready for my trip to London and Prague next weekend!
Our group left for Segovia Friday morning and took the four hour bus ride to the city. They picked Segovia because it was a good stopping point with many cites between Bilbao and Madrid. Segovia was highly influenced by the Romans when the city was being built. The highlight of the city is the aqueduct system running through the city. It is built entirely of stone and reaches who knows how far. I couldn't see the end. The stones were placed without using any type of mud or mortar. This means that the constructors had to place the stones in the perfect position to prevent leaks. Since they are all different shapes and sizes that had to have been pretty hard especially without the technology we have today. Even the architecture of the aqueduct was incredible.
After lunch we went on to a castle on the outskirts of town which is where I believe was the home of the king and queen of Castillo or something like that. I wish I had more background history on Spain so I could understand more when guides are speaking Spanish to us, but I think I pick up on enough. The castle seemed like it also served as a fort and was surrounded by moats. At the end of the tour, we were able to climb to the roof and look out at all of Segovia. From there, we left for our hotel in Madrid.
We stayed in a hotel that was probably a little bit too nice to let a large group of college kids stay. There was a bidet in the bathroom and also a phone. Definitely too fancy. It was also where the Canary Island professional soccer team was staying. The hotel restaurant served an all you can eat buffet for every meal which was included in our trip. We all took all you can eat very seriously! I'm just starting to get my apatite back.
The next day we started out with a bus tour of the main part of the city. Madrid is enormous. The lady giving the tour was actually very annoying so I didn't feel bad about falling asleep halfway through. We got off the bus at Puerta del Sol which is a plaza that is very popular for travelers. I will never understand why because there was nothing to see. There was a small protest being held there and tons of people running around in knock-off character costumes. I was beyond thrilled to see Mickey and Minnie. Of course I was going to get my picture taken with them and get away from the annoying tour guide for a bit. My friends and I took lots of pictures with Mickey and we said "gracias" and "adios" when we were done. But then Mickey took his head off and held out his hand and started demanding money. We were all shocked and didn't understand what was going on so we pretended to not understand and ran back to our group. The tour guide then decided to inform us that the people in the costumes were actually just street beggers and it was customary to pay them for taking pictures with you. We avoided people in costumes the rest of the day, which was difficult since there were probably 20 or 30 people doing the same thing.
We continued our walking tour and we saw the first restaurant in the world. I'm sure there were probably other restaurant before this one, but I'm guessing it was the first licensed restaurant. From there we walked past some other sites which had no significance to me. And then we got to the cathedral and the royal palace!! The palace was absolutely incredible. I was beyond pumped to be able to go on a tour of the inside... until I found out that they strictly prohibit pictures. How was I supposed to make it through the entire palace without taking one picture? It seemed like the security team was challenging me to see how many pictures I could take. I challenge I willingly accepted. I believe I won, because I came away with about 24 pictures. They are all horrible, but I'm proud of every single one of them. Others weren't so lucky and were forced to delete theirs when they got caught. They just don't have my moves.
The rest of our day consisted of free time. By the time my group of friends had the subway system figured out, we had used up pretty much two hours. Our goal was to get to the Reina Sofia Museum, which houses modern art pieces, so we could see the painting of Gernika which we had been studying in our classes. We didn't get the subway figured out to take us directly to the museum, so we got off at Puerta del Sol and found our way walking. It took forever and we were all exhausted. But we did end up making it and we got free admission since it was Saturday. We saw the Gernika and a few other rooms of paintings before we got tired and left so that we could make it back to the hotel in time for dinner.
That night, most of the kids in my program went out to Capital, which is a 7 story nightclub. As lovely as that sounded, I was not feeling paying $15 dollars to stay out until 6 am just to get up again at 8:30. I got plenty of sleep :)
The next morning we visited the Prado Museum. There were a few famous works featured there that I had never heard of, but this museum was my favorite part of the trip by far. All of the art was from the Middle Ages and was done for the houses of kings and queens, or done by famous artists. Everything was so real, and if I wasn't so exhausted, I could have walked through the museum all day. Luckily, I didn't have to. After grabbing lunch at the hotel, we headed back to Bilbao.
After the weekend, I realized just how much I love Bilbao. It's so peaceful, quiet, and safe. I never feel like I'm going to be mugged and even though I am careful with my purse, it's never my main concern. I also missed the comfort of my host family's house. Despite all of this, I am beyond ready for my trip to London and Prague next weekend!
Thursday, March 7, 2013
Lazy Post
Thank you everyone for over 3,000 views! I love the support! I'm not going to write much today because nothing terribly exciting has happened this week. It's been close to 70 degrees, but besides that everything has been pretty normal. We leave on our trip for Segovia and Madrid tomorrow morning at 9 and we won't be back until Sunday night.
Here are some pictures a friend of my host-mom took during our hike. I've been too lazy to upload mine :s
Here are some pictures a friend of my host-mom took during our hike. I've been too lazy to upload mine :s
Sunday, March 3, 2013
The Last "Calm" Weekend
I haven't been doing a ton out of the ordinary lately. I go exploring with friends every once in a while and buy more clothes than I need at stores you can't find in Nebraska. But every once in a while, I find things worth sharing (like the building that I kept seeing on Pinterest but never found until Wednesday!).
On Saturday it was nice and warm (50 degrees!) so my friend Mackenzie and I went walking around the city. I was determined to show her the Pinterest building but of course I didn't remember exactly how to get back. Luckily, my lack of directional ability lead us to an awesome store that we will be visiting again sometime soon. Let's just say I really need to stop finding new stores! We did eventually find the building and after we took off toward the end of a street where there was a large statue that we wanted to see up close. The statue wasn't anything exciting, but up the block there was a beautiful huge building behind stone fences that had to be a castle. We went to see what it was and found out nothing except that there is a security entrance and there was a man in a creepy mask sitting on a bench inside the gate. Now I have to know what the building is!
On our way back we realized that a protest was starting. There were only around 50 people when it all began and we figured we would stick around and see what was going on. The protest was for some type of Basque rights. That's all I figured out since I don't speak the language. We were bored of the protest pretty quick so we kept walking and a few blocks up the road, the police were blocking off traffic. The protesters were going to march. We decided again to stop and watch. It turns out this was a lot bigger than a 50 person protest. We estimated that we saw around 5,000 people walk by us and we stopped watching before we could see the end. We guessed that there were approximately 8,000 people marching for whatever the cause was. I will be asking about that in class tomorrow too.
My favorite part about the protest was all of the Basque people. Many Basques have a pretty extreme look so it's always fun to people watch. That's all I will say because I want my parents to be shocked when they get to Bilbao and see the Basque "look."
Today I joined my family on a hike through one of the mountains in a neighboring village. It was a guided hike for kids going to school in Bilbao that are Martin's age. In total, there were probably 250 people including lots of parents to help supervise. I had never climbed a mountain before so I had no idea what to expect. Isabel had let me borrow her spare pair of hiking boots which I am so thankful for now that I've experienced the mountain. It wasn't nearly as difficult as I thought it would be, but I was imagining not making it down from the mountain. It took awhile for my body to get used to the climb, but after that I was completely in love with everything. At some point we reached the steepest part of the mountain, which wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't covered in snow. Climbing up that was very slow and I kept thinking that maybe I didn't need to go to the top that bad, but I was more scared of going down than going up, so I kept going. Of course the view from the top of the mountain was worth it! Down wasn't nearly as horrible as I thought it would be either. I did slip a few times in the snow, but after that it was way too easy. Well, except for the part where my legs were shaking the whole time from lack of moving lately and all of the loose rocks. I was definitely relived when I made it to the bottom but at the same time I felt amazing. I never even imagined actually climbing to the top of a mountain. And really, I did it all by myself wondering off on my own. I hope we go out on another mountain soon, but I'll let my legs take a bit of a break for now.
So even though a lot happened this weekend, it's definitely the last truly calm weekend for awhile. Next weekend is our class trip to Madrid and Segovia. The weekend after that will be for last minute Spring Break arrangements and the next THREE weekends will be spent traveling. So I definitely appreciate every weekend I get to spend in Bilbao, even if I just sit in my room the entire weekend.
On Saturday it was nice and warm (50 degrees!) so my friend Mackenzie and I went walking around the city. I was determined to show her the Pinterest building but of course I didn't remember exactly how to get back. Luckily, my lack of directional ability lead us to an awesome store that we will be visiting again sometime soon. Let's just say I really need to stop finding new stores! We did eventually find the building and after we took off toward the end of a street where there was a large statue that we wanted to see up close. The statue wasn't anything exciting, but up the block there was a beautiful huge building behind stone fences that had to be a castle. We went to see what it was and found out nothing except that there is a security entrance and there was a man in a creepy mask sitting on a bench inside the gate. Now I have to know what the building is!
On our way back we realized that a protest was starting. There were only around 50 people when it all began and we figured we would stick around and see what was going on. The protest was for some type of Basque rights. That's all I figured out since I don't speak the language. We were bored of the protest pretty quick so we kept walking and a few blocks up the road, the police were blocking off traffic. The protesters were going to march. We decided again to stop and watch. It turns out this was a lot bigger than a 50 person protest. We estimated that we saw around 5,000 people walk by us and we stopped watching before we could see the end. We guessed that there were approximately 8,000 people marching for whatever the cause was. I will be asking about that in class tomorrow too.
My favorite part about the protest was all of the Basque people. Many Basques have a pretty extreme look so it's always fun to people watch. That's all I will say because I want my parents to be shocked when they get to Bilbao and see the Basque "look."
Today I joined my family on a hike through one of the mountains in a neighboring village. It was a guided hike for kids going to school in Bilbao that are Martin's age. In total, there were probably 250 people including lots of parents to help supervise. I had never climbed a mountain before so I had no idea what to expect. Isabel had let me borrow her spare pair of hiking boots which I am so thankful for now that I've experienced the mountain. It wasn't nearly as difficult as I thought it would be, but I was imagining not making it down from the mountain. It took awhile for my body to get used to the climb, but after that I was completely in love with everything. At some point we reached the steepest part of the mountain, which wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't covered in snow. Climbing up that was very slow and I kept thinking that maybe I didn't need to go to the top that bad, but I was more scared of going down than going up, so I kept going. Of course the view from the top of the mountain was worth it! Down wasn't nearly as horrible as I thought it would be either. I did slip a few times in the snow, but after that it was way too easy. Well, except for the part where my legs were shaking the whole time from lack of moving lately and all of the loose rocks. I was definitely relived when I made it to the bottom but at the same time I felt amazing. I never even imagined actually climbing to the top of a mountain. And really, I did it all by myself wondering off on my own. I hope we go out on another mountain soon, but I'll let my legs take a bit of a break for now.
So even though a lot happened this weekend, it's definitely the last truly calm weekend for awhile. Next weekend is our class trip to Madrid and Segovia. The weekend after that will be for last minute Spring Break arrangements and the next THREE weekends will be spent traveling. So I definitely appreciate every weekend I get to spend in Bilbao, even if I just sit in my room the entire weekend.
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
The Basque Conflict (To the best of my knowledge)
Living in the Basque Country, you can't go a day without hearing something about the Basque conflict and the differences in culture and ideals or even appearance. Reading articles on Bilbao before I left the United States, I thought I was going to be killed over my lack of knowledge on the issue, but Bilbao is really the safest place I've ever lived. Here is as much as I know and understand about the Basque history:
Historians, archaeologists, and pretty much everyone that is qualified to study the Basque people are confused on their origin. Most of the original tribes of people in Europe can be traced back to some location in the past, but scientists are finding that impossible to do with the Basque people. The only explanation they can come up with is that the Basques are the original cave people of Western Europe. Though this isn't proved, it still seems insane! They have trouble tracing them back to any specific tribe of people because Basques are traditionally taller than other Europeans with a different bone structure. The blood type is very different too.
What makes it most difficult is the Basque language, "Euskera." Euskera isn't based on Latin like Spanish and English, so it would be very difficult for an outsider to pick up on. Linguists have decided that Euskera is most similar to Japanese, though it is nothing like Japanese or any other Oriental language. Currently, Euskera is one of the first languages children learn to speak in the Basque Country. Either their family speaks it at home, or half of their classes in school are taught in Euskera. Many people older than 20 do not know how to speak Euskera. This is because during Franco's dictatorship, it was illegal to speak Basque. The language was preserved by the people that fled to France during the dictatorship or by the people who illegally spoke the language in their homes.
Also illegal during the reign of Franco were Basque names. My teacher, whose name is Begonia, had to be named Maria Begonia at her birth. Begonia is a Basque name, but Maria Begonia is the name of a saint. Her parents would have been arrested as they tried to leave the hospital if they didn't include the name Maria on her birth certificate. And even though she has never been called Maria, it is still part of her name to protect her family.
From the beginning of the Spanish civilization, the Basque people had their own type of independence. Though their land was controlled by the lords and kings in Spain, they were given autonomy. Throughout the years and many wars, they often lost some of their powers, but their independence was always respected to a degree. After the Spanish Civil War, Franco eliminated the Basque independence. It pretty much became illegal to be Basque. Now that Spain is a Republic, the Basque Country has regained a lot of its independence, though there are many people that want to be a separate country.
As I understand it, the most intense push to be an independent nation came in the 80's and 90's. A Basque terrorist group called ETA was formed. Their most devastating attack was in Madrid in the 90's. To the Spanish people, this is considered as devastating as 9/11 is to us. After the attack, the government decided to give the Basque people a little more freedom in exchange for a cease-fire. ETA is currently inactive and all the jailed members of this terrorist organization were put in prisons outside of the Basque Country to make it more difficult to fire up the group. (Not all Basques are extremists. It's just like American extremists.)
Right now, to explain the Basque Country is one big contradiction. They are called a country but they aren't a country. They are independent but they answer to the Spanish government. They have their own language but the majority of people speak Spanish on a daily basis. They are Spanish but they are Basque. They want to be their own country but they also want to be part of Spain. Basically, if you are an American visiting the Basque Country, don't share your opinion about the conflict because it's too complex to fully understand unless you yourself are Basque. I personally find the whole situation fascinating and I'm so glad I choose to live here even though everything on the internet tried to scare me away.
Historians, archaeologists, and pretty much everyone that is qualified to study the Basque people are confused on their origin. Most of the original tribes of people in Europe can be traced back to some location in the past, but scientists are finding that impossible to do with the Basque people. The only explanation they can come up with is that the Basques are the original cave people of Western Europe. Though this isn't proved, it still seems insane! They have trouble tracing them back to any specific tribe of people because Basques are traditionally taller than other Europeans with a different bone structure. The blood type is very different too.
What makes it most difficult is the Basque language, "Euskera." Euskera isn't based on Latin like Spanish and English, so it would be very difficult for an outsider to pick up on. Linguists have decided that Euskera is most similar to Japanese, though it is nothing like Japanese or any other Oriental language. Currently, Euskera is one of the first languages children learn to speak in the Basque Country. Either their family speaks it at home, or half of their classes in school are taught in Euskera. Many people older than 20 do not know how to speak Euskera. This is because during Franco's dictatorship, it was illegal to speak Basque. The language was preserved by the people that fled to France during the dictatorship or by the people who illegally spoke the language in their homes.
Also illegal during the reign of Franco were Basque names. My teacher, whose name is Begonia, had to be named Maria Begonia at her birth. Begonia is a Basque name, but Maria Begonia is the name of a saint. Her parents would have been arrested as they tried to leave the hospital if they didn't include the name Maria on her birth certificate. And even though she has never been called Maria, it is still part of her name to protect her family.
From the beginning of the Spanish civilization, the Basque people had their own type of independence. Though their land was controlled by the lords and kings in Spain, they were given autonomy. Throughout the years and many wars, they often lost some of their powers, but their independence was always respected to a degree. After the Spanish Civil War, Franco eliminated the Basque independence. It pretty much became illegal to be Basque. Now that Spain is a Republic, the Basque Country has regained a lot of its independence, though there are many people that want to be a separate country.
As I understand it, the most intense push to be an independent nation came in the 80's and 90's. A Basque terrorist group called ETA was formed. Their most devastating attack was in Madrid in the 90's. To the Spanish people, this is considered as devastating as 9/11 is to us. After the attack, the government decided to give the Basque people a little more freedom in exchange for a cease-fire. ETA is currently inactive and all the jailed members of this terrorist organization were put in prisons outside of the Basque Country to make it more difficult to fire up the group. (Not all Basques are extremists. It's just like American extremists.)
Right now, to explain the Basque Country is one big contradiction. They are called a country but they aren't a country. They are independent but they answer to the Spanish government. They have their own language but the majority of people speak Spanish on a daily basis. They are Spanish but they are Basque. They want to be their own country but they also want to be part of Spain. Basically, if you are an American visiting the Basque Country, don't share your opinion about the conflict because it's too complex to fully understand unless you yourself are Basque. I personally find the whole situation fascinating and I'm so glad I choose to live here even though everything on the internet tried to scare me away.
Saturday, February 23, 2013
Gernika, Mundaka, and More
Yesterday was a pretty eventful day for everyone in the CIDE program because we went out on another excursion. This time, we weren't missing 20 people, probably because we didn't have to leave until 10 am. We started the day in Gernika which is part of the providence Bizkaia, the same providence as Bilbao. This city is famous for the 1936 bombing the suffered at the hands of Hitler during the Spanish Civil War. Hitler and Franco were bros. The city wasn't particularly pretty because they rebuilt in a hurry but there was history everywhere. First, we went to the World Peace Museum which is basically just a museum about the bombing. I thought this museum was pretty cool because the floors were made out of glass and under the glass was real rubble from the bombing. Though most of the rubble was rock and wood, there were also a lot of random items that they had excavated from the rubble, like a women's shoe, playing cards, and charred books.
After the museum, we went to visit the Bizkaia Assembly House, where the Bizkaian government meets. Right outside of this building is the tree of Gernika. This was the tree where all of the Bizkaian lords met to discuss laws in the middle ages. I was pretty disappointed that the original tree is no longer standing (even though the tree survived the bombing). Every time the tree is close to death, they take one of its seeds, cut down the old tree, and plant its child. I believe the current tree was the great-great-great-great-grandchild of the original tree. The tree and the town of Gernika are considered to be the historical symbol of the Basque Country.
After Gernika, we visited Mundaka which is a fishing village right on the ocean. For some reason, we weren't allowed to go onto the beach, but we could go on the stairs that lead right down to the water. We had plenty of time to look around the water before our trip back to Bilbao. This trip was way better than our last excursion.
On Wednesday, we were given our Spanish partners for our conversation groups. Since there are more of us than there are of them, we are actually in small groups instead of partners. I am in a group with two other American girls and two Spanish girls. They are super nice and I can't wait to talk to them more throughout the months. I am also participating in the Tandem program, so I will have my own partner outside of class to practice speaking with. I have been assigned my girl, but we haven't had a chance to meet yet.
Yesterday when I got home from my trip, our French girl was here. Her name is Deborah and she is super nice. I got to go with my family to show her around a bit and get to know her. She is only here for the week.
Today was quite eventful for a Saturday too. When I woke up this morning, it was snowing! It does not snow in Bilbao. Ever. It didn't stick since it was 40 degrees but my family was still pretty excited about it. They were trying to figure out if there had been snow in Bilbao since Martin had been alive, so it's really a treat that I was here for the snow. Lunch was a catastrophe. I had been planning on making Cheesy Potatoes and Meatballs (the best food in our family) for quite awhile and today ended up being the day. Writing out the ingredients for Perico to buy was difficult enough since there weren't translations for half of the stuff in the recipes. I knew that he would come back home with something besides hash browns.... the frozen french fries he bought did the trick. Then after that, I had to make a dish that I had never made before while only getting help in Spanish. I tried to do as much as I could on my own because explaining was taking way too long. At some point I gave up on having meatballs in the shape of balls and decided it was just going to be a meat dish. I added a little more than the recipe called for in the potatoes, too, since they were thicker. I'm not sure if it was really necessary since I do not cook, but I was in a hurry and really didn't care. In the end, everything turned out okay but it definitely wasn't anything like how my grandma would make it. I would like to add the the hamburger has a different taste here. It kind of tastes like crap! Only eat Nebraska beef!
After the museum, we went to visit the Bizkaia Assembly House, where the Bizkaian government meets. Right outside of this building is the tree of Gernika. This was the tree where all of the Bizkaian lords met to discuss laws in the middle ages. I was pretty disappointed that the original tree is no longer standing (even though the tree survived the bombing). Every time the tree is close to death, they take one of its seeds, cut down the old tree, and plant its child. I believe the current tree was the great-great-great-great-grandchild of the original tree. The tree and the town of Gernika are considered to be the historical symbol of the Basque Country.
After Gernika, we visited Mundaka which is a fishing village right on the ocean. For some reason, we weren't allowed to go onto the beach, but we could go on the stairs that lead right down to the water. We had plenty of time to look around the water before our trip back to Bilbao. This trip was way better than our last excursion.
On Wednesday, we were given our Spanish partners for our conversation groups. Since there are more of us than there are of them, we are actually in small groups instead of partners. I am in a group with two other American girls and two Spanish girls. They are super nice and I can't wait to talk to them more throughout the months. I am also participating in the Tandem program, so I will have my own partner outside of class to practice speaking with. I have been assigned my girl, but we haven't had a chance to meet yet.
Yesterday when I got home from my trip, our French girl was here. Her name is Deborah and she is super nice. I got to go with my family to show her around a bit and get to know her. She is only here for the week.
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| My sad cooking attempt |
Monday, February 18, 2013
Random Spain Facts
**In Spain I'm considered a blonde!? My host mom will always say things like, "Oh that gorgeous blonde in the pretty dress," and it takes a minute or two to realize that she was referring to me. :s
**There aren't any jobs in Spain; it's worse than the American job market. Kids here my age don't work. Most peoples' first job is the job they go to college for. Since that's the case, parents support their kids' partying habits and pay for them to go to the clubs every night.
**Because kids don't work, they rely on their families for lots longer than American kids do. You are basically considered a kid until around the age 26 or 27 and most people are still living with their parents at that age. You only live in the dorms at school if you go to a college outside of your town (which isn't common).
**A dinky apartment the size of about a classroom costs around 800,000 euros, which is close to a million US dollars. You don't rent apartments here-- you have to buy it. I haven't seen an actual house since I've been in Spain, only apartments. Instead of calling your apartment "my house" you call it "my piso" which translates into "my floor."
**Since people are so much older before starting work and buying a house, families start later too. It's common for "starting a family" to mean buying an apartment with your boyfriend since getting married can cost so much money. Kids don't come until the woman is well into her 30's because maternity leave benefits aren't as good here and women want to have an opportunity to work their way up in their jobs. Since they are so much older when they start having kids (and since the homes are smaller and money is tighter) most families only have one kid-- 2 kids every once in awhile.
**Women's Rights are actually taken seriously here (Mom, can I move?). Besides the whole maternity leave thing, the Spanish government does everything they can to protect women and girls, especially from violence. I'm not sure if you have every heard of being charged with Attempted Rape, but here people can get 6 years in prison for that. And getting charged with actual rape will put you in prison for longer than you could imagine. It's amazing how great a country is when there aren't loonies running around preaching about "Legitimate Rape." A few years ago, the Spanish government noticed that there were many more cases of spousal homicide and decided to take matters into their own hands... this one gets a little extreme. To eliminate this problem, the Spanish government has outlawed any kind of language spoken from a man to a woman that could make the woman feel superior to the man. If a man calls his wife (or any woman for that matter) the B-word and the woman can prove it, the man will be sentenced to jail time. Luckily, the courts have given the men a 2 strike policy. If the first offense gets the man less than two years of jail time, he will get off with community service or some type of anger management. But the second time he is being tried for this crime, he will go to prison.
**Barack Obama is considered a conservative by every European that I've met.
**Everyone loves the universal health care system in Spain. Maybe we need to look into their model.
**Criminals don't carry guns here. The only guns my host family has seen are the ones that the guards have in front of the government building when important visitors are there.
**McDonald's is where you go to work if you need a job while you are getting your education. All the workers have their teeth and are bilingual. They don't smell either. McChicken sandwiches are 6 euros which is probably around $8.
**We don't drink our water with ice...ever!
**Moms here are obsessed with the nutritional content of everything, and know what each type of food is good for. Martin is not allowed to eat oranges after supper because they keep you up or something like that. She is also certain that if the food is shaped like a certain organ, then it is good for that organ. I can't remember which food exactly but she always tells me it's good for my skin. I've been having an allergic reaction on my skin since I got here, so I think she's wrong!
**The death penalty is not allowed an any member states in the European Union (including Spain) because it is a form of denying people of their human rights.
**So far, about half of the dogs I've seen have been neutered. I'm guessing the other half are female?? Gross!
Saturday, February 16, 2013
16/2/2013
We are finally almost to the end of a very boring week.
Thursday night after class I was sitting in my room doing my homework and minding my own business when the dog walked in playing with one of Martin's gloves. I took it from him and went to put it in Martin's room. The door was wide open and the light was on and he was talking to his mom. As I took a step toward the door, the worst possible thing ever happened. Martin was laying on his bed changing into his pajama pants full moon toward the door.... and I saw EVERYTHING!!! I was mortified and didn't know what to do, so hoping he didn't see me I threw the glove into his room and hurried back to mine (well, ran actually). I didn't come out of my room until I knew he was asleep. I was pretty sure that he hadn't seen me because he hadn't said anything crying or yelling to Isabel. But Friday at supper I realized that he probably had seen me. He wouldn't eat with us, so I'm assuming it was because he was too embarrassed to be in the same room as me. Last night I gave him a Fun Dip, so I'm assuming that means we're friends again.
Yesterday I got a huge box in the mail from my aunt and uncle Heath and Amanda (and Cooper and Charleigh, of course)! I couldn't break into the box fast enough. I was beyond relieved when I found FOUR jars of peanut butter (along with Valentine's candy, wing sauce, and a "dirty" diaper from Coop). It was a matter of seconds before I had a jar of peanut butter open and was eating it by the spoonful. I probably ate peanut butter for 15 minutes straight (happy dancing the whole time) before I decided it would probably be smart to save room for lunch. I definitely over-did it because I had a stomach ache the rest of the afternoon.
I decided to get out yesterday and walk down to Casco Viejo (the old part of Bilbao) and check out the shops. Everyone says the shopping there is great. After wandering around the neighborhood for two hours, I would have to disagree with everyone. The only store I liked was a make up store, which I was so relieved to find since the only make up I've seen so far is at Sephora (expensive) or the Chino stores (too cheap to wear). Hopefully I'll be able to remember how to get there when I run out of make up.
Here's my shout-out to BBHS Cheerleaders competing at State today!!! I showed my host family videos from my senior year at State Cheerleading and they hadn't seen anything like it before. I think Isabel was really impressed. She kept saying something about how difficult it would be to have so many people in sync for that long. Anyway, Go Indian Cheer! Bring home another State Championship!!!
It's days like today that I wish my family didn't feel like they couldn't wake me up when I've slept past 10 am! Today (while I was still sleeping at 12) I kept hearing the doorbell and voices in the kitchen. I ignored it as long as possible, but then decided I should probably get up and get ready if we were having a dinner party or something. Of course, by this point I hadn't realized that all the voices had disappeared. I took my time getting ready and when I was heading back to my room, Isabel stopped me and asked if I wanted to go have pintxos in Plaza Nueva with the rest of the family. (That's where all the voices went-- they had already left) Isabel was going to stay at the house and clean so I had to hurry along by myself to catch up with the rest of the family (Perico, Martin, Tia Cristina, and Tio Jose Augustine). Plaza Nueva is the oldest plaza in Bilbao, which is just open space surrounded by walls and shops. There are lots of restaurants with outdoor seating in the plaza and plenty of benches and free space to play soccer. Luckily, I had half a clue where I was going and was able to find my family right away. We had potato chips and coke, and wine for the "adults", and then came back home for lunch.
Thursday night after class I was sitting in my room doing my homework and minding my own business when the dog walked in playing with one of Martin's gloves. I took it from him and went to put it in Martin's room. The door was wide open and the light was on and he was talking to his mom. As I took a step toward the door, the worst possible thing ever happened. Martin was laying on his bed changing into his pajama pants full moon toward the door.... and I saw EVERYTHING!!! I was mortified and didn't know what to do, so hoping he didn't see me I threw the glove into his room and hurried back to mine (well, ran actually). I didn't come out of my room until I knew he was asleep. I was pretty sure that he hadn't seen me because he hadn't said anything crying or yelling to Isabel. But Friday at supper I realized that he probably had seen me. He wouldn't eat with us, so I'm assuming it was because he was too embarrassed to be in the same room as me. Last night I gave him a Fun Dip, so I'm assuming that means we're friends again.
Yesterday I got a huge box in the mail from my aunt and uncle Heath and Amanda (and Cooper and Charleigh, of course)! I couldn't break into the box fast enough. I was beyond relieved when I found FOUR jars of peanut butter (along with Valentine's candy, wing sauce, and a "dirty" diaper from Coop). It was a matter of seconds before I had a jar of peanut butter open and was eating it by the spoonful. I probably ate peanut butter for 15 minutes straight (happy dancing the whole time) before I decided it would probably be smart to save room for lunch. I definitely over-did it because I had a stomach ache the rest of the afternoon.
I decided to get out yesterday and walk down to Casco Viejo (the old part of Bilbao) and check out the shops. Everyone says the shopping there is great. After wandering around the neighborhood for two hours, I would have to disagree with everyone. The only store I liked was a make up store, which I was so relieved to find since the only make up I've seen so far is at Sephora (expensive) or the Chino stores (too cheap to wear). Hopefully I'll be able to remember how to get there when I run out of make up.
Here's my shout-out to BBHS Cheerleaders competing at State today!!! I showed my host family videos from my senior year at State Cheerleading and they hadn't seen anything like it before. I think Isabel was really impressed. She kept saying something about how difficult it would be to have so many people in sync for that long. Anyway, Go Indian Cheer! Bring home another State Championship!!!
It's days like today that I wish my family didn't feel like they couldn't wake me up when I've slept past 10 am! Today (while I was still sleeping at 12) I kept hearing the doorbell and voices in the kitchen. I ignored it as long as possible, but then decided I should probably get up and get ready if we were having a dinner party or something. Of course, by this point I hadn't realized that all the voices had disappeared. I took my time getting ready and when I was heading back to my room, Isabel stopped me and asked if I wanted to go have pintxos in Plaza Nueva with the rest of the family. (That's where all the voices went-- they had already left) Isabel was going to stay at the house and clean so I had to hurry along by myself to catch up with the rest of the family (Perico, Martin, Tia Cristina, and Tio Jose Augustine). Plaza Nueva is the oldest plaza in Bilbao, which is just open space surrounded by walls and shops. There are lots of restaurants with outdoor seating in the plaza and plenty of benches and free space to play soccer. Luckily, I had half a clue where I was going and was able to find my family right away. We had potato chips and coke, and wine for the "adults", and then came back home for lunch.
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
13/2/2013
So nothing terribly exciting has happened since my last post. It's been a slow, rainy week. Carnival ended in Bilbao yesterday with the ceremonial burning of the giant sardine. It's a paper mache sardine of course, but apparently there is a big religious ceremony that goes along with the burning. I didn't go because I wasn't feeling well at all yesterday, but friends had posted pictures on Facebook of the ceremony and it looked pretty cool.
Yesterday, my host-dad Perrico cooked Chinese food for lunch! I needed that so bad. It was all homemade, even the egg roll. Perrico said that Chinese restaurants here charge around 30 euros per plate of food! On Sunday night, our family ate food from a restaurant for the first time since I've been here, even though it was just take-out. We had Doner Kabobs which are my new favorite thing. They are Turkish and are a lot like Greek gyros, but with lamb instead of the beef that we eat in the United States. It was also the first time that we had eaten anything spicy since I've been here and I could tell it was way beyond what my host-parents are used to since most of the food here is bland. Another kid in my class said that there are restaurants serving them all over Europe, but we definitely need to start getting them in America!
Here are some of the (crappy) pictures I took at Carnival!
Yesterday, my host-dad Perrico cooked Chinese food for lunch! I needed that so bad. It was all homemade, even the egg roll. Perrico said that Chinese restaurants here charge around 30 euros per plate of food! On Sunday night, our family ate food from a restaurant for the first time since I've been here, even though it was just take-out. We had Doner Kabobs which are my new favorite thing. They are Turkish and are a lot like Greek gyros, but with lamb instead of the beef that we eat in the United States. It was also the first time that we had eaten anything spicy since I've been here and I could tell it was way beyond what my host-parents are used to since most of the food here is bland. Another kid in my class said that there are restaurants serving them all over Europe, but we definitely need to start getting them in America!
Here are some of the (crappy) pictures I took at Carnival!
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| Top two pictures are a street performing crew. They were doing some type of traditional Spanish dancing. The men had bells attached to their pant legs and with every step they jingled like they had a band following them. |
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| This is the view of the carnival right by the ria on Saturday night in Casco Viejo. |
Sunday, February 10, 2013
Carnival :)
So, being exhausted from Thursday night's Carnival activities, I haven't done much this weekend. I did sleep a lot on Friday and if there was anything fun going on in town, I definitely didn't make it. Saturday on the other hand was absolutely amazing!
Saturday is the day of the big Carnival parade in Bilbao. My family had talked about it a bit so I had assumed they were going to take me, so I had gotten absorbed in homework and planning my Spring Break trip and didn't even notice that the parade had already started until it was a little late to go. I didn't even know where it was. Lucky for me, my friend Gus called at around 6:15 (the parade started at 6) and asked where the heck I was and to get to the Abando neighborhood ASAP. Also lucky for me, Abando is only a 10 minute walk from my house so I got to the parade with about a half an hour before the end. I'm so glad I made it.
This isn't anything like the Custer County Fair Parade with decorated pickup trucks or people running out of candy. The carnival parade is legit. Everyone had some type of car that they had specially made for the parade. Most of them that I saw were campers or school buses painted and with the sides cut out so you could see the float. There was music blasting on each float to go along with whatever theme the group chose. Most groups were advertising night clubs or entertainment for Carnival. Each float had about 20 people following along throwing out candy and sometimes stopping to perform silly dances. One float had a large group of penguins following behind and they stopped every few minutes for the kid penguins to do a dance and song. It was very cute! Other floats had bands performing live, and one even had a magician sawing people in half as he rolled down the road.
There were two things that each float had in common: lots of candy and amazing costumes. I was very thankful that it was sprinkling and it was alright for me to have my umbrella up because every few seconds we would get rained on with candy and my umbrella was the only thing protecting my head from getting pelted with candy. But by far my favorite part of the entire parade were the costumes. Not one costume was crappy. The store-bought costumes that people wore looked like the expensive kind that you would special order, definitely not something you would buy from Walmart. But even better than the store-bought costumes were the homemade ones, and just like the store-bought ones, these costumes were incredible. I can't describe to you how perfect all of these costumes were, and they weren't easy. Entire families would all have the same costume, like a dog or chickens. I'm trying to come up with words to describe how cool these costumes were but I'm coming up blank, so please use your imagination and Google, and hopefully one of my friends has a picture I can link to this later. But by far the most common costume was boys dressed as girls, wigs, bras and all.
After the parade, we walked down to Casco Viejo (the old part of town) which is right on the river. The had an actual carnival set up along the water. It looked like something straight out of a movie. There were tons of rides, games, and Spain's version of fried food on a stick (basically just candy apples and churros). A friend bought a stick on cotton candy that was bigger than 3 heads combined. There was a ride like the ones in the USA that spin around so fast that you stick to the wall, but this one went a little slower. But instead of being strapped in or having a place to hold on, the kids were free to run around as the ride was going. Kids were falling all over the place and I have no idea how they all stayed in the actual ride. We decided that it wasn't possible to have a ride like this in the United States because it's a lawyer's nightmare.
After walking around awhile, I decided to head back home for supper. Roads were closed for two entire metro stops to accommodate all of the people and events. There were two different stages set up for singers (I'm sure no one famous, the Biebs doesn't come until June). Though the celebration in Bilbao isn't nearly as big as in other cities in Europe, I would guess I saw around 10,000 people yesterday enjoying all of the festivities.
Saturday is the day of the big Carnival parade in Bilbao. My family had talked about it a bit so I had assumed they were going to take me, so I had gotten absorbed in homework and planning my Spring Break trip and didn't even notice that the parade had already started until it was a little late to go. I didn't even know where it was. Lucky for me, my friend Gus called at around 6:15 (the parade started at 6) and asked where the heck I was and to get to the Abando neighborhood ASAP. Also lucky for me, Abando is only a 10 minute walk from my house so I got to the parade with about a half an hour before the end. I'm so glad I made it.
This isn't anything like the Custer County Fair Parade with decorated pickup trucks or people running out of candy. The carnival parade is legit. Everyone had some type of car that they had specially made for the parade. Most of them that I saw were campers or school buses painted and with the sides cut out so you could see the float. There was music blasting on each float to go along with whatever theme the group chose. Most groups were advertising night clubs or entertainment for Carnival. Each float had about 20 people following along throwing out candy and sometimes stopping to perform silly dances. One float had a large group of penguins following behind and they stopped every few minutes for the kid penguins to do a dance and song. It was very cute! Other floats had bands performing live, and one even had a magician sawing people in half as he rolled down the road.
There were two things that each float had in common: lots of candy and amazing costumes. I was very thankful that it was sprinkling and it was alright for me to have my umbrella up because every few seconds we would get rained on with candy and my umbrella was the only thing protecting my head from getting pelted with candy. But by far my favorite part of the entire parade were the costumes. Not one costume was crappy. The store-bought costumes that people wore looked like the expensive kind that you would special order, definitely not something you would buy from Walmart. But even better than the store-bought costumes were the homemade ones, and just like the store-bought ones, these costumes were incredible. I can't describe to you how perfect all of these costumes were, and they weren't easy. Entire families would all have the same costume, like a dog or chickens. I'm trying to come up with words to describe how cool these costumes were but I'm coming up blank, so please use your imagination and Google, and hopefully one of my friends has a picture I can link to this later. But by far the most common costume was boys dressed as girls, wigs, bras and all.
After the parade, we walked down to Casco Viejo (the old part of town) which is right on the river. The had an actual carnival set up along the water. It looked like something straight out of a movie. There were tons of rides, games, and Spain's version of fried food on a stick (basically just candy apples and churros). A friend bought a stick on cotton candy that was bigger than 3 heads combined. There was a ride like the ones in the USA that spin around so fast that you stick to the wall, but this one went a little slower. But instead of being strapped in or having a place to hold on, the kids were free to run around as the ride was going. Kids were falling all over the place and I have no idea how they all stayed in the actual ride. We decided that it wasn't possible to have a ride like this in the United States because it's a lawyer's nightmare.
After walking around awhile, I decided to head back home for supper. Roads were closed for two entire metro stops to accommodate all of the people and events. There were two different stages set up for singers (I'm sure no one famous, the Biebs doesn't come until June). Though the celebration in Bilbao isn't nearly as big as in other cities in Europe, I would guess I saw around 10,000 people yesterday enjoying all of the festivities.
Friday, February 8, 2013
The Start of Carnival
Carnival started last night in the majority of the world, including Bilbao. Carnival is celebrated like Halloween with lots of crazy costumes, so my week consisted of trying to come up with a costume without spending too much money. Luckily, I got paid on Wednesday so I didn't feel bad about buying things (that I didn't need).
I went to Claire's, which I was surprised to see in Bilbao, and I was able to find vampire makeup stickers, so I bought those and decided to just wear something I already had. But I still had a day at work before I got to celebrate carnival. As usual, I had no idea how to get to my job.
*Spain Rule 6- Always have money on your pre-paid phone for when you get lost in a strange city and don't speak the language.
I definitely got lost on my way to work and I definitely should have listened to my host mom when she said I should call my boss before I left. Why at 20 years old would I start listening to a mom now? Anyway, I was too smart to get lost, so I took off in the general direction without even a street name. In my defense, I was on the right block. I was steps away from the house, but I remember it looking different so I turned around and walked back to an area I was familiar with. I tried to call my boss to get directions, but my phone company said I had to add money to my account, which of course is really difficult to do in the middle of a park, on the phone in another language. I knew I would be able to get a text out, so I texted my boss and in my best broken Spanish told her I was lost and she had to call me, which luckily worked. She came and found me, and now I know exactly where I'm going.
I absolutely love going to work and hanging out with Naia. We work on homework, and practice writing a bit and then sit around and talk. She is great about asking questions and continuing conversations just like a little adult. I usually lose track of time, but like all the other mothers here, her mom knows exactly when it is 6:30 and the lesson is over. I was beyond excited to get 25 euros in cash at the end of my time there on Wednesday. It probably explains all the impulse buys I made on my way home.
Yesterday was the start of Carnival and everyone was talking all day about their costumes, and lots of people were running last minute to the Chino Stores (or the dollar stores which are nearly always ran by the Chinese, it's not considered racist here, trust me) to get costumes. Our group was going to District 9, a club that just so happens to be right outside my window (which explains why it's always so loud out there). I got dressed up and went to the club around 11 even though none of my friends had left yet. There weren't many people there yet, but I quickly met a few girls that were also from other countries that had just arrived in Bilbao that morning and would be starting class at Deusto the next week. Two were from Mexico and the other was from France. We hung out for awhile while I told them what to do and what not to do in Bilbao, since I'm such a professional after being here a month!
After awhile, my friends started arriving and it turned out to be a great night. I decided to stay out a little later than normal since it was a holiday and since I could see my bedroom. Of course, I am dead tired today even with the three hour nap. There were some type of festivities downtown tonight, but I decided I'd rather stay in and relax. Tomorrow there is a dinner and bar-hopping that I could attend if I decide to not be cheap and there is also a parade. I will definitely go to the parade and hopefully get pictures. It's supposed to rain for the next week unfortunately.
I went to Claire's, which I was surprised to see in Bilbao, and I was able to find vampire makeup stickers, so I bought those and decided to just wear something I already had. But I still had a day at work before I got to celebrate carnival. As usual, I had no idea how to get to my job.
*Spain Rule 6- Always have money on your pre-paid phone for when you get lost in a strange city and don't speak the language.
I definitely got lost on my way to work and I definitely should have listened to my host mom when she said I should call my boss before I left. Why at 20 years old would I start listening to a mom now? Anyway, I was too smart to get lost, so I took off in the general direction without even a street name. In my defense, I was on the right block. I was steps away from the house, but I remember it looking different so I turned around and walked back to an area I was familiar with. I tried to call my boss to get directions, but my phone company said I had to add money to my account, which of course is really difficult to do in the middle of a park, on the phone in another language. I knew I would be able to get a text out, so I texted my boss and in my best broken Spanish told her I was lost and she had to call me, which luckily worked. She came and found me, and now I know exactly where I'm going.
I absolutely love going to work and hanging out with Naia. We work on homework, and practice writing a bit and then sit around and talk. She is great about asking questions and continuing conversations just like a little adult. I usually lose track of time, but like all the other mothers here, her mom knows exactly when it is 6:30 and the lesson is over. I was beyond excited to get 25 euros in cash at the end of my time there on Wednesday. It probably explains all the impulse buys I made on my way home.
Yesterday was the start of Carnival and everyone was talking all day about their costumes, and lots of people were running last minute to the Chino Stores (or the dollar stores which are nearly always ran by the Chinese, it's not considered racist here, trust me) to get costumes. Our group was going to District 9, a club that just so happens to be right outside my window (which explains why it's always so loud out there). I got dressed up and went to the club around 11 even though none of my friends had left yet. There weren't many people there yet, but I quickly met a few girls that were also from other countries that had just arrived in Bilbao that morning and would be starting class at Deusto the next week. Two were from Mexico and the other was from France. We hung out for awhile while I told them what to do and what not to do in Bilbao, since I'm such a professional after being here a month!
After awhile, my friends started arriving and it turned out to be a great night. I decided to stay out a little later than normal since it was a holiday and since I could see my bedroom. Of course, I am dead tired today even with the three hour nap. There were some type of festivities downtown tonight, but I decided I'd rather stay in and relax. Tomorrow there is a dinner and bar-hopping that I could attend if I decide to not be cheap and there is also a parade. I will definitely go to the parade and hopefully get pictures. It's supposed to rain for the next week unfortunately.
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
First Day of Work
I'm sure everyone is wondering how my first day at my job went yesterday. It was definitely better than expected. Besides getting turned around on the way to meet the mother at the metro station, everything was perfect.
The girl's name is Naia and she is in the 6th grade. She speaks English extremely well and isn't shy. She was very excited to have me there and very excited to start. It turns out that her mother would like it to be more of a lesson instead of playing which is different than I anticipated. This is good though, because at that age they are harder to play with. Her mother wants us to spend the first part of the hour practicing conversation skills and the second half writing, since they don't practice writing much in English at school. Naia is very easy to get along with and is good about asking questions. The family mostly speaks Euskera, the Basque language, when they are at home but they also speak Spanish and English. Sometimes when she was confused on a word, Naia would translate it from Euskera to Spanish, and then I would translate it from Spanish to English. It can be quite the process, but so far we are both enjoying it. Not to mention I will be making 24 euros a week, so I won't be going completely broke. My hope is that I will be able to find my way back to her house tomorrow because I got completely lost on my way home last night. And, as always when I get lost, it started raining.
Yesterday was the celebration of one of Bilbao's favorite saints, Saint Agatha. She is a hero for the work she did for women's rights in her day. Her punishment, along with torture, was the removal of her breasts. To celebrate her heroism, many choirs form around the city and sing folk-songs in Euskera. They usually dress in clothes from older times and each choir raises money for a different charity. Last night, we went to see one of the street choirs perform outside of a few bars. While we listened, I got to try my first pintxo (which are appetizers and are customarily eaten as snacks) at one of the bars courtesy of my host-aunt Maria. I couldn't even tell you what it was, but all I know is that it was delicious. I also got a yarn necklace from my host-brother Martin to celebrate Saint Blaise. He always had a sore throat and it is said that wearing the yarn necklace for a week will prevent sore throats for the rest of the year. I'm willing to try anything!
The girl's name is Naia and she is in the 6th grade. She speaks English extremely well and isn't shy. She was very excited to have me there and very excited to start. It turns out that her mother would like it to be more of a lesson instead of playing which is different than I anticipated. This is good though, because at that age they are harder to play with. Her mother wants us to spend the first part of the hour practicing conversation skills and the second half writing, since they don't practice writing much in English at school. Naia is very easy to get along with and is good about asking questions. The family mostly speaks Euskera, the Basque language, when they are at home but they also speak Spanish and English. Sometimes when she was confused on a word, Naia would translate it from Euskera to Spanish, and then I would translate it from Spanish to English. It can be quite the process, but so far we are both enjoying it. Not to mention I will be making 24 euros a week, so I won't be going completely broke. My hope is that I will be able to find my way back to her house tomorrow because I got completely lost on my way home last night. And, as always when I get lost, it started raining.
Yesterday was the celebration of one of Bilbao's favorite saints, Saint Agatha. She is a hero for the work she did for women's rights in her day. Her punishment, along with torture, was the removal of her breasts. To celebrate her heroism, many choirs form around the city and sing folk-songs in Euskera. They usually dress in clothes from older times and each choir raises money for a different charity. Last night, we went to see one of the street choirs perform outside of a few bars. While we listened, I got to try my first pintxo (which are appetizers and are customarily eaten as snacks) at one of the bars courtesy of my host-aunt Maria. I couldn't even tell you what it was, but all I know is that it was delicious. I also got a yarn necklace from my host-brother Martin to celebrate Saint Blaise. He always had a sore throat and it is said that wearing the yarn necklace for a week will prevent sore throats for the rest of the year. I'm willing to try anything!
Monday, February 4, 2013
Super Bowl in Spain
Thank you everyone for the 2000 views on my blog in less than a month! I'm going to try to blog as much as I can before my charger no longer works. My power adapter is shorting out and won't charge my computer all the way. I'm nervous that it will ruin my battery, but oh well.
Last night I was planning on going to a bar in Getxo to watch the American broadcast of the Super Bowl. Unfortunately, it didn't start until 12:00 our time. They weren't planning on it being over until 4:30 am with the next bus not running to Bilbao until 5:00 am. Since it was a school night I decided to be smart and watch it in the comfort of my bed. I ended up having to watch a Spanish broadcast online, but I'm not sure which country was providing it. I didn't need the audio one bit though, because I'm sure I know more about football than the South American announcers. I'm glad I stayed home because I ended up going to bed sometime around the 3rd quarter. Shout out to everyone who sent me Super Bowl food pics last night. You made my halftime meal of a glass of water that much more enjoyable.
Yesterday, my favorite host-aunt and uncle were over for lunch, which seems to be the Sunday tradition. I have gotten to know Jose Augustine and Christina very well and Jose loves to talk to me about traveling through Europe. Christina invited me to their home to learn to cook some Spanish dishes after their kitchen remodel is finished.
Today, I learned that we will be having another foreign student living with us for a week. She will be coming toward the end of the month to participate in a week long program at Deusto. Isabel says that she is from France and will be staying in Martin's room.
Tonight I will start my job.
Last night I was planning on going to a bar in Getxo to watch the American broadcast of the Super Bowl. Unfortunately, it didn't start until 12:00 our time. They weren't planning on it being over until 4:30 am with the next bus not running to Bilbao until 5:00 am. Since it was a school night I decided to be smart and watch it in the comfort of my bed. I ended up having to watch a Spanish broadcast online, but I'm not sure which country was providing it. I didn't need the audio one bit though, because I'm sure I know more about football than the South American announcers. I'm glad I stayed home because I ended up going to bed sometime around the 3rd quarter. Shout out to everyone who sent me Super Bowl food pics last night. You made my halftime meal of a glass of water that much more enjoyable.
Yesterday, my favorite host-aunt and uncle were over for lunch, which seems to be the Sunday tradition. I have gotten to know Jose Augustine and Christina very well and Jose loves to talk to me about traveling through Europe. Christina invited me to their home to learn to cook some Spanish dishes after their kitchen remodel is finished.
Today, I learned that we will be having another foreign student living with us for a week. She will be coming toward the end of the month to participate in a week long program at Deusto. Isabel says that she is from France and will be staying in Martin's room.
Tonight I will start my job.
Saturday, February 2, 2013
End of Week 4!
Can you believe by Monday I will have already been here an entire month?? It's hard for me to believe. It seems like I'm running out of time to do all the things I have planned, so I guess that means I will have to eliminate a few naps from my weekly itinerary.
This week I found out that my schedule didn't work with the elementary school English program that I had applied to work for. But don't worry, I already have another opportunity lined up. One of the CIDE ladies called me into the office this week and said that there was a woman she knew with an 11 year old daughter that needed help with her English. If I was interested, I would go to their house every Monday and Wednesday mid-afternoon for an hour to play with the daughter in English. Of course I was interested! I called the woman, and though I barely knew what was going on since we were speaking Spanish over the phone, she told me I could start on Monday. I'm not sure exactly how this whole process will work since it won't be a set of lessons. The lady from CIDE said it would be teaching through playing and reading, but so far I don't have many ideas. If anyone has something that they think would be a good idea, please leave a comment!
Besides this, this week was fairly uneventful. The weather was nice every single day and there wasn't a bit of rain. It was actually hot for Bilbao standards. Some of us joked that Bilbao was jealous that we were bashing on her weather while we were on our vacations so she decided to show us up. Either way, it didn't last long. Last night the rain was back to normal.
Friday, we had our first of three guided excursions through the CIDE program. We went to Bayona, which is in the South of France and Hondarribia which is in the Northern part of Spain. All in all, it was a waste of a day even though I was glad to get out of the house and spend the day with friends.
Bayona isn't located in the South of France that we all think of when we hear that phrase. The South of France that we think of is all beaches and is where the stars vacation. Bayona is part of the French Basque Country where many of the Basque people fled for their own safety when Franco took control of Spain. This area is famous for its chocolateers. The town is located right next to the river and the part we visited was inside of a fort used to protect the city during the world wars. Bayona is the birthplace of the Bayonette. The town wasn't particularly pretty but there were hundreds of shops. We only had an hour to explore though, so I wasn't able to do much shopping (we waited 20 minutes in Bilbao for late kids who ended up not getting to go anyway!). At least I was able to have my first French experience and try a crepe.
After Bayona, we drove back into Spain, the San Sebastian area I believe, for lunch at a cider house. It was three courses of awesomeness! It started out with pasta cooked in the cider that was absolutely delicious! Not to mention it contained hamburger. Next, we each got our own chicken breast, also cooked in the cider with french fries. After we were good and full, we were taken back to the cider barrels to give the restaurant's special, homemade drink a try. It definitely wasn't the flavor I was expecting, but being 20, I never turn down a free drink. When we got back to our tables, dessert was waiting for us. I was terrified to try it because it looked like egg soup but it was delicious. I couldn't even pretend I remember what it was called, but it did contain egg yolk. It was cinnamon flavored and is what is used to make flan, another traditional Spanish dessert. For the first time since I've been in Spain, I felt actually full after a meal. And not just full, I felt satisfied.
We finished our excursion off with an hour-long bus ride to Hondarribia. This town, in the Spanish Basque Country, was right by the ocean, so I was able to see the ocean for the first time. From where we were standing, we could even see France. One side of the ocean was Spain and the next land you could see was France. Besides the view of the ocean, there was absolutely nothing to do in Hondarribia. Unlike Bayona, there weren't any shops to waste time in. We ended up sitting by the ocean for nearly two hours talking. After, we had another hour and a half bus ride home. I guess the highlight of my day would be the three naps I got in on the bus.
Next week I am back to my regular schedule, but probably won't have anything terribly eventful going on. I am looking forward to going out on Sunday night at midnight to watch the Super Bowl all night. Go anyone but the Ravens!!
This week I found out that my schedule didn't work with the elementary school English program that I had applied to work for. But don't worry, I already have another opportunity lined up. One of the CIDE ladies called me into the office this week and said that there was a woman she knew with an 11 year old daughter that needed help with her English. If I was interested, I would go to their house every Monday and Wednesday mid-afternoon for an hour to play with the daughter in English. Of course I was interested! I called the woman, and though I barely knew what was going on since we were speaking Spanish over the phone, she told me I could start on Monday. I'm not sure exactly how this whole process will work since it won't be a set of lessons. The lady from CIDE said it would be teaching through playing and reading, but so far I don't have many ideas. If anyone has something that they think would be a good idea, please leave a comment!
Besides this, this week was fairly uneventful. The weather was nice every single day and there wasn't a bit of rain. It was actually hot for Bilbao standards. Some of us joked that Bilbao was jealous that we were bashing on her weather while we were on our vacations so she decided to show us up. Either way, it didn't last long. Last night the rain was back to normal.
Friday, we had our first of three guided excursions through the CIDE program. We went to Bayona, which is in the South of France and Hondarribia which is in the Northern part of Spain. All in all, it was a waste of a day even though I was glad to get out of the house and spend the day with friends.
 |
| Driving through the Spanish/French border. |
After Bayona, we drove back into Spain, the San Sebastian area I believe, for lunch at a cider house. It was three courses of awesomeness! It started out with pasta cooked in the cider that was absolutely delicious! Not to mention it contained hamburger. Next, we each got our own chicken breast, also cooked in the cider with french fries. After we were good and full, we were taken back to the cider barrels to give the restaurant's special, homemade drink a try. It definitely wasn't the flavor I was expecting, but being 20, I never turn down a free drink. When we got back to our tables, dessert was waiting for us. I was terrified to try it because it looked like egg soup but it was delicious. I couldn't even pretend I remember what it was called, but it did contain egg yolk. It was cinnamon flavored and is what is used to make flan, another traditional Spanish dessert. For the first time since I've been in Spain, I felt actually full after a meal. And not just full, I felt satisfied.
We finished our excursion off with an hour-long bus ride to Hondarribia. This town, in the Spanish Basque Country, was right by the ocean, so I was able to see the ocean for the first time. From where we were standing, we could even see France. One side of the ocean was Spain and the next land you could see was France. Besides the view of the ocean, there was absolutely nothing to do in Hondarribia. Unlike Bayona, there weren't any shops to waste time in. We ended up sitting by the ocean for nearly two hours talking. After, we had another hour and a half bus ride home. I guess the highlight of my day would be the three naps I got in on the bus.
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| My very first view of the ocean in Hondarribia! |
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Bella Roma!
I'm dreading to find out how long this blog will end up taking me since it's been at least five days! I'll try to remember every detail possible!
Friday at 5:30 am my friend Mackenzie and I arrived at the Madrid airport. That should be plenty of time to get through security to make it to our 7:05 flight, right? Well, no! We got on the shuttle for our terminal but confusion lead us to ride around the loop twice. When we finally found where we needed to check in, the last call sign was already flashing. Then, for some reason everyone was flying out of Madrid at 7 am so the security line was packed. We cut :s Then came the mad dash through the airport. We arrived at check in just as boarding was supposed to start, but luckily the plane was late so no one had boarded by the time we found our gate. We were finally able to relax (for the most part, Europe doesn't give you free drinks on the plane) and sleep until we landed in Rome at 9:30 am.
When we arrived at the airport, the original plan was to take a train into town (since the airport is so far out of town) and then take the bus as close as we could to our hostel. We stopped to ask at an information desk which train we needed, but a lady told us about a shuttle that would take us directly to our hostel for only a few euros more than the train would cost. Since we were already stressed we decided to take the shuttle instead of trying to maneuver our way though public transit. It turned out to be a great decision because our hostel was a little difficult to find at first. The woman working the front desk at the hostel informed us that there was a public transit strike going on that day only, so it would be nearly impossible to see the Coliseum that day since we would only be able to travel on foot.
After freshening up from an entire night of traveling, we set off to find our first attraction. We decided to start with the Pantheon, an ancient church that is partially in ruins. It turned out to be a great place to start because it was free to enter the church and look at the murals and tombs. Right next to the Pantheon was a great restaurant where we had our first real Italian meal. I had lasagna and absolutely loved it! We kept walking to find the Trevi Fountain so we could toss in coins and make wishes. Before we could make it that far, we ran into the most beautiful building I would see the entire trip.
I still couldn't tell you what the building was called even though I tried to read it off of the map a million times, but there is some type of museum situated inside the building. It is an all white, marble building with beautiful Roman pillars and close to 100 stairs. There are statues everywhere you could possibly imagine with one giant sculpture on top. At the top of the stairs there are large flame torches. Everything about this area was beyond beautiful and it was my favorite site of the entire trip.
In the distance from this building, we could see something shaped very similar to the Coliseum, though we knew we wouldn't be running into that today. We figured we would walk down and see what the building actually was since we had three days to kill. The closer we got, the larger the ruins got, until it was obvious that we did the unthinkable. We walked the entire way to the Coliseum. We decided not to take a tour through the Coliseum since many people said it wasn't worth the money and since there was so much construction going on inside the ruins. Still, we had our magical Coliseum experience. Finally, we found our way to the Trevi Fountain and were able to make our wishes. At the end of the first day, we only had a few more sites in Rome that we needed to get to, and we still had two entire days to fill.
The next day we woke early (way too early) to catch our train to Florence. We had bought the tickets in advance and had asked what bus route to take to get to the train station. We got on our bus and rode a few blocks before the bus driver said that we had to get off; this was the end of the line. We were so confused because everyone said that the train station was the end of the line. We were stumped at what to do next, especially since there wasn't a metro stop anywhere near where we had been. The bus had dropped us right by the Vatican so we knew a metro had to be close, but our departure time was even closer! We ran again, but this time through the streets of Rome, trying to follow the signs for the metro and hoping we were headed in the right direction. Every chance we got, we would stop to ask a nun or a police officer if we were headed in the right direction. Finally, 15 minutes before our train was scheduled to depart, we arrived at the metro, threw money into the machine and ran to the train. Luckily, ours was pulling up as we arrived on the loading dock and our stop was only 3 or 4 away. We made another mad dash through the train station and our train was easy to find even though the station was huge. We arrived in our seats less than three minutes before we were scheduled to depart.
Florence was absolutely beautiful. It reminded me a lot of Bilbao but with more history. It was the perfect size to do it just a day. The Duoma was the most beautiful building I have ever seen. The detailing on the building was unimaginable. The inside had a painted dome ceiling that I liked better than the Sistine chapel paintings. It circled around from the pits of hell to the top of heaven. It was some of the best artwork I've ever seen. In the Duoma, we took the hike up (and later back down) all 463 stairs to see the view of Florence from above. You could see for miles! On the way down, we got to look at the ceiling mural up close. That may have been one of the highlights of my entire trip.
The rest of the day we spent exploring the city and shopping. There is a great street market in Florence where bargaining is expected. I loved it! At some point I was nearly convinced to buy a hundred dollar leather jacket. I talked myself out of that one though! I did buy a few gifts for family and clothes for myself since Italy is also in their sale season. Luckily it wasn't nearly as hard to find the train on the way back to Rome that night. We rode home first class which meant we got complimentary drinks and snacks. That is the only time you ever hear the word complimentary in Europe. Not even the water is free!
Sunday was free admission day at the Vatican Museum. I will never pass up anything free. The museum had an incredible about of art and kept me interested longer than most museums would. All I wanted to see was the pope mobile/maybe even take a picture with it. This dream, unfortunately, did not come true. But I did get to see the Sistine Chapel along with the Creation of David painting. No photos are allowed in the chapel and there is also no talking allowed to keep the building sacred. The guards did a great job of ruining the sacredity in my opinion. They would shout "No foto" every minute and shush the crowd. I'm pretty sure Jesus didn't say either of those in the Bible.... I had to get a picture though, and with modern technology, I was able to get one on my phone without getting caught. It wouldn't have mattered anyway. If you get caught they just tell you to stop and let you keep whatever pictures you have.
We spent a lot of the rest of the day resting since we had only been walking through the city and waking up ridiculously early each morning. Of course, we fit in our daily gelado stop, which I now live for. I tried as many flavors as possible: mint chip, nutella, pistachio, cinnamon, and my favorite tiramisu. Luckily there's a gelado shop just a few blocks down from my house in Bilbao!
We finished up our trip on Monday by seeing anything that we had missed. It turns out we only had one site left to see, the Spanish Steps. It's basically a large plaza in the middle of the haute couture shopping district in Rome. It's a large flight of Spanish style stairs that lead to another one of Rome's many beautiful buildings. I absolutely despise the architecture of Spanish style stairs. They are long but short at the same time so you have to take lots of little steps rather than a normal step. This is one of the little things I miss about America.
It rained in Rome on Monday so we spent a lot of time inside our hostel preparing for our all night trip back to Bilbao. We decided again not to chance it with the buses and had a personal driver that works close with the hostel come pick us up. Again, it was only a few euros more to be guaranteed a safe delivery to the airport. Once again, traveling didn't go as planned. The driver was 15 minutes late to pick us up. Luckily (I think), he was able to get us to the airport fast.
*Side Note- All the cars here are stick shift and hatchbacks. No one has the ability to drive smoothly. Shout out to my bestie Michaela Neth! I will never complain about riding in your stick shift car again if I ever did in the first place! Anyway, there are very few driving rules in Europe. Lines are less of a guideline and more of a joke. Motorcycles and vespas make their own lanes and drive wherever they would like.
So we are in the car with our driver and he starts weaving through traffic like he's being chased. Then to further avoid traffic, the madman starts driving on the trolley tracks! He stayed on them for a good two or three minutes before deciding to go back to his part of the road. I just thank God that we made it alive and on time.
We flew out of Rome around 9:50 and were back in Madrid by 11:30. We then had to wait until 2:15 am for our bus back to Bilbao (which of course was late). Apparently we booked a ride on the luxury bus because we were waited on by a man in a suit who brought little mints and blankets. We had our own individual chairs with mini tv/tablets on the back. They had internet but it was slow. I slept a few hours on the bus but then woke up to be served breakfast. It was only two mini donuts and hot chocolate but it was the most luxury breakfast I've ever had on a bus! By the time I was finished we were only a half hour away from Bilbao so I decided to just stay awake.
It turns out that I don't know where I live in relation to the bus station. Since my host dad drove me I never had to learn. I got directions and was going to figure out the walk on my own but it was 6:45, I had class at 9, and I was exhausted. I decided to test out the metro for the first time and cut the trip by 20 minutes. The metro in Bilbao is so simple and it's the cleanest I've ever seen, especially compared to Rome.
Rome was by far the dirtiest city I've ever been in. Everything about it was dirty. Probably because of all the tourists. But the tourists weren't the ones leaving their dog's poop everywhere. **Gross Fact** On a 4 block stretch of sidewalk I counted 40 individual instances of dog poop. **Disgusting**
Anyway, this took more than an hour and I have no desire to add any pictures since I'm running on less than four hours of sleep. I'll set up a link to my Facebook photo album or add pictures later when I'm bored.
Pictures:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152531231135651.954111.562120650&type=1
Friday at 5:30 am my friend Mackenzie and I arrived at the Madrid airport. That should be plenty of time to get through security to make it to our 7:05 flight, right? Well, no! We got on the shuttle for our terminal but confusion lead us to ride around the loop twice. When we finally found where we needed to check in, the last call sign was already flashing. Then, for some reason everyone was flying out of Madrid at 7 am so the security line was packed. We cut :s Then came the mad dash through the airport. We arrived at check in just as boarding was supposed to start, but luckily the plane was late so no one had boarded by the time we found our gate. We were finally able to relax (for the most part, Europe doesn't give you free drinks on the plane) and sleep until we landed in Rome at 9:30 am.
When we arrived at the airport, the original plan was to take a train into town (since the airport is so far out of town) and then take the bus as close as we could to our hostel. We stopped to ask at an information desk which train we needed, but a lady told us about a shuttle that would take us directly to our hostel for only a few euros more than the train would cost. Since we were already stressed we decided to take the shuttle instead of trying to maneuver our way though public transit. It turned out to be a great decision because our hostel was a little difficult to find at first. The woman working the front desk at the hostel informed us that there was a public transit strike going on that day only, so it would be nearly impossible to see the Coliseum that day since we would only be able to travel on foot.
After freshening up from an entire night of traveling, we set off to find our first attraction. We decided to start with the Pantheon, an ancient church that is partially in ruins. It turned out to be a great place to start because it was free to enter the church and look at the murals and tombs. Right next to the Pantheon was a great restaurant where we had our first real Italian meal. I had lasagna and absolutely loved it! We kept walking to find the Trevi Fountain so we could toss in coins and make wishes. Before we could make it that far, we ran into the most beautiful building I would see the entire trip.
I still couldn't tell you what the building was called even though I tried to read it off of the map a million times, but there is some type of museum situated inside the building. It is an all white, marble building with beautiful Roman pillars and close to 100 stairs. There are statues everywhere you could possibly imagine with one giant sculpture on top. At the top of the stairs there are large flame torches. Everything about this area was beyond beautiful and it was my favorite site of the entire trip.
In the distance from this building, we could see something shaped very similar to the Coliseum, though we knew we wouldn't be running into that today. We figured we would walk down and see what the building actually was since we had three days to kill. The closer we got, the larger the ruins got, until it was obvious that we did the unthinkable. We walked the entire way to the Coliseum. We decided not to take a tour through the Coliseum since many people said it wasn't worth the money and since there was so much construction going on inside the ruins. Still, we had our magical Coliseum experience. Finally, we found our way to the Trevi Fountain and were able to make our wishes. At the end of the first day, we only had a few more sites in Rome that we needed to get to, and we still had two entire days to fill.
The next day we woke early (way too early) to catch our train to Florence. We had bought the tickets in advance and had asked what bus route to take to get to the train station. We got on our bus and rode a few blocks before the bus driver said that we had to get off; this was the end of the line. We were so confused because everyone said that the train station was the end of the line. We were stumped at what to do next, especially since there wasn't a metro stop anywhere near where we had been. The bus had dropped us right by the Vatican so we knew a metro had to be close, but our departure time was even closer! We ran again, but this time through the streets of Rome, trying to follow the signs for the metro and hoping we were headed in the right direction. Every chance we got, we would stop to ask a nun or a police officer if we were headed in the right direction. Finally, 15 minutes before our train was scheduled to depart, we arrived at the metro, threw money into the machine and ran to the train. Luckily, ours was pulling up as we arrived on the loading dock and our stop was only 3 or 4 away. We made another mad dash through the train station and our train was easy to find even though the station was huge. We arrived in our seats less than three minutes before we were scheduled to depart.
Florence was absolutely beautiful. It reminded me a lot of Bilbao but with more history. It was the perfect size to do it just a day. The Duoma was the most beautiful building I have ever seen. The detailing on the building was unimaginable. The inside had a painted dome ceiling that I liked better than the Sistine chapel paintings. It circled around from the pits of hell to the top of heaven. It was some of the best artwork I've ever seen. In the Duoma, we took the hike up (and later back down) all 463 stairs to see the view of Florence from above. You could see for miles! On the way down, we got to look at the ceiling mural up close. That may have been one of the highlights of my entire trip.
The rest of the day we spent exploring the city and shopping. There is a great street market in Florence where bargaining is expected. I loved it! At some point I was nearly convinced to buy a hundred dollar leather jacket. I talked myself out of that one though! I did buy a few gifts for family and clothes for myself since Italy is also in their sale season. Luckily it wasn't nearly as hard to find the train on the way back to Rome that night. We rode home first class which meant we got complimentary drinks and snacks. That is the only time you ever hear the word complimentary in Europe. Not even the water is free!
Sunday was free admission day at the Vatican Museum. I will never pass up anything free. The museum had an incredible about of art and kept me interested longer than most museums would. All I wanted to see was the pope mobile/maybe even take a picture with it. This dream, unfortunately, did not come true. But I did get to see the Sistine Chapel along with the Creation of David painting. No photos are allowed in the chapel and there is also no talking allowed to keep the building sacred. The guards did a great job of ruining the sacredity in my opinion. They would shout "No foto" every minute and shush the crowd. I'm pretty sure Jesus didn't say either of those in the Bible.... I had to get a picture though, and with modern technology, I was able to get one on my phone without getting caught. It wouldn't have mattered anyway. If you get caught they just tell you to stop and let you keep whatever pictures you have.
We spent a lot of the rest of the day resting since we had only been walking through the city and waking up ridiculously early each morning. Of course, we fit in our daily gelado stop, which I now live for. I tried as many flavors as possible: mint chip, nutella, pistachio, cinnamon, and my favorite tiramisu. Luckily there's a gelado shop just a few blocks down from my house in Bilbao!
We finished up our trip on Monday by seeing anything that we had missed. It turns out we only had one site left to see, the Spanish Steps. It's basically a large plaza in the middle of the haute couture shopping district in Rome. It's a large flight of Spanish style stairs that lead to another one of Rome's many beautiful buildings. I absolutely despise the architecture of Spanish style stairs. They are long but short at the same time so you have to take lots of little steps rather than a normal step. This is one of the little things I miss about America.
It rained in Rome on Monday so we spent a lot of time inside our hostel preparing for our all night trip back to Bilbao. We decided again not to chance it with the buses and had a personal driver that works close with the hostel come pick us up. Again, it was only a few euros more to be guaranteed a safe delivery to the airport. Once again, traveling didn't go as planned. The driver was 15 minutes late to pick us up. Luckily (I think), he was able to get us to the airport fast.
*Side Note- All the cars here are stick shift and hatchbacks. No one has the ability to drive smoothly. Shout out to my bestie Michaela Neth! I will never complain about riding in your stick shift car again if I ever did in the first place! Anyway, there are very few driving rules in Europe. Lines are less of a guideline and more of a joke. Motorcycles and vespas make their own lanes and drive wherever they would like.
So we are in the car with our driver and he starts weaving through traffic like he's being chased. Then to further avoid traffic, the madman starts driving on the trolley tracks! He stayed on them for a good two or three minutes before deciding to go back to his part of the road. I just thank God that we made it alive and on time.
We flew out of Rome around 9:50 and were back in Madrid by 11:30. We then had to wait until 2:15 am for our bus back to Bilbao (which of course was late). Apparently we booked a ride on the luxury bus because we were waited on by a man in a suit who brought little mints and blankets. We had our own individual chairs with mini tv/tablets on the back. They had internet but it was slow. I slept a few hours on the bus but then woke up to be served breakfast. It was only two mini donuts and hot chocolate but it was the most luxury breakfast I've ever had on a bus! By the time I was finished we were only a half hour away from Bilbao so I decided to just stay awake.
It turns out that I don't know where I live in relation to the bus station. Since my host dad drove me I never had to learn. I got directions and was going to figure out the walk on my own but it was 6:45, I had class at 9, and I was exhausted. I decided to test out the metro for the first time and cut the trip by 20 minutes. The metro in Bilbao is so simple and it's the cleanest I've ever seen, especially compared to Rome.
Rome was by far the dirtiest city I've ever been in. Everything about it was dirty. Probably because of all the tourists. But the tourists weren't the ones leaving their dog's poop everywhere. **Gross Fact** On a 4 block stretch of sidewalk I counted 40 individual instances of dog poop. **Disgusting**
Anyway, this took more than an hour and I have no desire to add any pictures since I'm running on less than four hours of sleep. I'll set up a link to my Facebook photo album or add pictures later when I'm bored.
Pictures:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152531231135651.954111.562120650&type=1
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